4. What is the Welsh Government doing to promote the strengths of vocational education amongst 14-16 year olds? OAQ(5)0125(EDU)

The Welsh Government places great value in vocational qualifications being made available for 14 to 16-year-olds. Through the Learning and Skills (Wales) Measure 2009, all learners are offered at least three vocational qualifications at key stage 4 in local curriculum offers.

Thank you for that answer, Minister, and it’s important that we ensure parity of esteem for vocational qualifications as, for many, that’s going to be a stronger route for them into further education and into work opportunities, and it allows young people to demonstrate the skills that, perhaps, the academic route doesn’t offer.

Now, as such, too many parents and too many young people are still of the view that the traditional A-level is the only way forward for them. There is a different way, and you’ve highlighted there that you’re offering vocational education, but it’s about telling them the benefits of that so they understand what they can gain out of that. Now, vocational qualifications offer routes for many young people into further or higher education, into work opportunities, into areas that need the skills and competencies of those individuals. So, how are you going to actually work with FE colleges and other institutions to promote the vocational qualifications amongst the 14 to 16-year-olds so that, when they finish their GCSE courses, they actually have a good understanding of the opportunities available to them, and the pathways that they can take when they leave?

Can I say I absolutely agree with the points made by the Member in his question? It’s important that all learners have access to a curriculum that best suits their individual learning pathways and meets their wide range of interests and abilities, and that there is parity of esteem between those choices. Members will be pleased to hear that, in this academic year, all schools and FE colleges in Wales have either met or exceeded the local curriculum offer requirements of the 14-19 learning pathways. But can I say this in answer to his question? I think he’s absolutely right to identify the issue of how we take forward that sort of training opportunity, skills acquisition, and the curriculum for 14 to 16-year-olds.

Members may be aware that the Welsh Government is undertaking a pilot to support junior apprenticeships, which is being taken forward in collaboration with Cardiff and Vale College. That started this year, and we’re looking, at the moment, at this pilot. I have to say, I’m minded, and I have asked officials to explore whether or how we can expand and build upon this pilot and move forward with more urgency, so that, if the pilot proves to be an effective way of ensuring not just a parity of esteem, but better qualifications for people at 16, we can expand it more mainstream as soon as possible.

Minister, vocational education is very important to looked-after children, and can I welcome the very good news we had today about the number of looked-after children achieving the level 2 inclusive threshold, which now stands at 23 per cent? That’s still 37 per cent behind the peer group, and obviously we’ve got to get up to as close to the peer group as possible, but it is a 10 percentage point improvement on 2012. I do hope you’ll be able to confirm that the Government takes this welcome news as a first step, and also in terms of looking at vocational education and ensuring that progress there matches the ambition that we’re now setting for educational attainment in general for looked-after children.

Yes. We do clearly welcome the improvement, but also we feel impatient that we want to move further and faster. The conversations that I’ve had with the Cabinet Secretary for Education are focused on how we ensure that that attainment gap is closed, and how we ensure that all children, irrespective of their backgrounds, have the appropriate support to enable them to do that. Junior apprenticeships may be one way of achieving that—it’s clearly not the only way of achieving that—but, certainly, we’re going to ensure that these opportunities are available to all learners in all parts of Wales.

There’s currently a shortage of skills in the construction industry, so I wondered if the programme of vocational education puts any emphasis on teaching carpentry, bricklaying, and any of the other related skills that are needed in that industry.

The junior apprenticeship programme, run in collaboration with Cardiff and Vale College, does study key routes such as construction, automotive, and prepares learners to progress directly on to full apprenticeship programmes once completed at the age of 16.