Thank you very much for that series of questions. I think the issue around employer confidence is an interesting one. We had an extensive consultation over the summer—last summer—with employers on our apprenticeships programmes, which was completely upended by the announcements at UK level of the apprenticeship levy, which cut straight across that. Members who were here in the fourth Assembly will remember my consternation that we had to stop that consultation while we figured out what on earth was going on with the apprenticeship levy, and I’m sad to say that we’re still in a position where we’re not quite sure how much money, if any money, will come to the Welsh Government as a result of that levy. So, that has caused a considerable amount of unease, shall we say, with employers, because it hasn’t been possible to provide certainty, either at the UK level or at the Welsh level. Indeed, we’re in a series of correspondence and meetings with various Ministers, trying to sort that out. So, I agree with him that employer confidence could be higher in that system, but I don’t agree with him that the Welsh Government is in any way responsible for that. Indeed, I would ask him to look to the Government at UK level—controlled by the Conservative Party, I think—and ask what added value this apprenticeship levy has actually wrought into this system, because, frankly, I can’t see it.

In terms of our own programmes, they are highly sought after by our employers. We have one of the highest completion rates in Europe, at 86 per cent. Some of our providers are up in the 90 per cent completion rates. That’s how we monitor progress—by completion rate, and then employment following the frameworks. We also have flexible frameworks so that employers who require—. For example, very recently, we had a shortage of people with long-distance lorry driving skills. We were able to put a framework in place to fill that gap very swiftly, and that’s proved very successful. We have a very flexible programme that allows us to respond to that sort of demand.

In terms of the skills overall, the Member will remember that we have discussed many times in this Chamber our need to move to higher skills, away from base-level skills and apprenticeships, and that our programme now embraces an all-age apprenticeship system, which allows people to progress to higher-level apprenticeships right up to degree and postgraduate level—very much sought after by some of our prestigious employers, such as Airbus, GE Aviation, and so on. A large number of them; those are just two. We’re very proud of that and we’ll be continuing to do that. We’re also looking at the essential skills programme very carefully to ensure that it’s accessible to those people who still need the essential skills that the Member pointed out.