5. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on removing the boundaries between further and higher education? OAQ(5)0091(EDU)

Thank you, Hefin. I announced my intention last week to consult on setting up a new strategic authority to oversee post-compulsory education and training. This would promote collaboration, remove barriers to progression and create seamless learning pathways across all elements of post-compulsory education and training, including further and higher education.

I welcome that statement and the measures that she has just identified in response to the Hazelkorn review. In her evidence to the Children, Young People and Education Committee on 10 November, she stated that, in the more immediate future—before that further consultation takes place—when she submits her annual remit letter, there'll be an expectation that, of the money that has been going to the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, part of that is used to enhance the relationship between FE and HE. She said she’d include that in the remit letter. At the same meeting, the Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language said he doesn’t want to see a boundary between FE and HE. How, specifically, will the Cabinet Secretary ensure, in her next remit letter, which is due very soon, that that’s the case?

Thank you for that. This desire on behalf of Welsh Ministers has already been expressed to HEFCW in an additional remit letter that went out earlier this autumn, and future remit letters would seek to build upon this.

I am struck by how important these opportunities are. Again, this morning, with Dawn Bowden, I was in Merthyr Tydfil college. We met students there this morning who were undertaking the first two years of their course at the campus in Merthyr and who will then go on to study at the University of South Wales to complete their degrees. Many of their students who study A-levels, for instance, then move on to progress to study at a higher level within the same institution, and what’s been crucial for raising aspiration levels in that community, which has had a very difficult time, is that close linkage between the FE college and the HE institution.

I will continue, as we work towards the single tertiary education authority, to express my desire, and how important I believe it is, to HEFCW in my regular meetings with both the chairman and the chief executive, and my officials will be monitoring what evidence there is from HEFCW to see that the spirit of the remit letter has indeed been fulfilled.

Cabinet Secretary, the issue of student tuition fees and funding arrangements for higher education has occupied considerable attention. However, further education occupies an equally if not more important role in terms of providing skills for local economies and their learners, and deserves equal attention. Does the Cabinet Secretary agree that a continued decrease in funding for lower-level skills will place in jeopardy the ability to provide the fundamental learning that supports our communities in Wales?

Thank you for that. I don’t regard any element of the sector to be more important than any other, and I expressed that quite clearly in my statement on Hazelkorn last week. The purpose of the new tertiary education authority will be partly to ensure we can have that parity of esteem between the different forms of study, and the resources that will help drive not just the life chances of the individuals who are studying, but will drive the economy of Wales forward, will be fundamental to their work as they commission programmes of study, work-based learning and skills provision.