Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:22 pm on 14 June 2016.
I wish to congratulate our Minister and the Welsh Government on the continuing strategic commitment to the apprenticeship agenda in securing a more prosperous and resilient and equal Wales. I’m also very proud to have been elected on our manifesto pledge of around 100,000 new apprenticeships, and that’s further to the success of Jobs Growth Wales. I also very much welcome the cross-party consensus that I’ve heard again today over the importance of the apprenticeships programmes, but there’s a very real risk that’s staring us in the face, and it’s already been articulated today. Although I share very much the concerns over the apprenticeship levy, I need to state that 94,000 apprenticeships, as you are aware, over the next four years, are to be supported by £83 million-worth of EU social funds. Does the Minister believe that removal of European funding from Wales via a vote to leave will indeed, as the party opposite wish to see, put at risk such valued and life-changing apprenticeship programmes and consequently put at risk the entire Welsh economy?