I say in response to David Melding that my colleagues make fun of me whenever I mention my degrees and using my degrees, so I’ve learnt to keep quiet about it—[Interruption.] Yes, the gowns were pretty exotic. [Laughter.]

I started my career in what was the Allt-yr-yn, or colloquially known as the ‘Altereen’ campus in Newport. My experience in HE was only ever, and I think I’ve said to this Chamber before, on validation panels in FE, meeting FE colleagues and as a moderator. And that’s about it. There was never any crossover teaching or working with colleagues—certainly nothing like the knowledge centre that you’ve suggested now, and, clearly, Allt-yr-yn campus is now a housing estate. It’s now the waterfront and you’ve got the Nash campus base moving from Nash to the waterfront. I think that’s a good example of how things should happen. The University of South Wales, as Professor Diamond recognised, is a very good example, if not of best practice—a very good example of how we should progress HE and FE links.

I visited, in preparation for this debate and debates like it, Coleg y Cymoedd Ystrad Mynach in my constituency, and if you want to see it, there’s a little video on Twitter all about the visit. What an array of activities that are taking place there. There are no classrooms in the video: there’s a mechanics workshop, there’s an aircraft cabin, and there’s a working kitchen and restaurant. They are some of the things going on at Coleg y Cymoedd. That’s the kind of experience that HE lecturers, I think, need to have as well and see some of those things that are going on.

The Hazelkorn review, to which the Cabinet Secretary made a response last week, took a very welcome look at these issues. And as she said in her statement, the complexities involved in these matters, FE and HE, has led to unhelpful competition between education and training providers, with duplication or gaps and confusion for learners. And the Minister for lifelong learning, as I mentioned earlier at question time, said, when he visited the Children, Young People and Education Committee on 10 November, that he would like to see no border at all between FE and HE. I’d like to hear more about that in discussions, because I think it helps answer some of the questions in this debate and that are referred to in the amendment in the name of Jane Hutt.

I welcome the fact that there’d be a body that would ultimately replace the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, which will play an important part in resolving some of the border problems between FE and HE, although in my question to the Cabinet Secretary earlier, she said she’s got plans for this, but I asked about the short term: what’s going to happen in the immediate future? She said, when she visited the Children, Young People and Education on 10 November, that there would be an expectation that the money that has been going to Higher Education Funding Council for Wales—that part of that is used to enhance the relationship between FE and HE, and she’d make that clear in her remit letter. When I asked her today, she said that she’d already made it clear in the interim remit letter, but that was issued in October. She made the statement to the committee in November, so I’d still like some clarity on that. And if the Minister could pursue some clarity on that, I’d be very grateful, because that would help us get some clarity as to what will happen while further consultation is going on regarding the funding body.

But perhaps we need to go further and establish a post-16 education and training strategy for Wales, looking at FE and HE, work-based learning and adult community education. This is something that I hope will be at the forefront of the Welsh Government’s thinking when it comes to the work of implementing the recommendations of Diamond and Hazelkorn. This is something that can happen.

The Conservatives have brought forward this motion today. I’ve been critical of Darren Millar in the past, particularly—not his fault, but the UK Government’s fault—their decimation, the UK Government’s decimation, of the international student market in higher education. The picture in England is not much better in FE either, with the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons identifying a looming crisis in FE funding that was coming in England. So, I think work needs to be done at all levels in FE and HE, and I think the Welsh Government, commendably, are taking an approach that is addressing that issue. Hazelkorn provides us a golden opportunity for us to learn from those mistakes that are being made in England, and forge our own Welsh approach to a successful post-compulsory education regime that meets the needs of employers, providers and learners in the years ahead.