2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on work experience opportunities for pupils? OAQ(5)0131(EDU)[W]

Diolch yn fawr, Rhun. Well-planned, structured work experience placements can provide young people with a valuable insight into the world of work. Schools and local authorities are responsible for providing pupils with work-focused experiences as part of the delivery of the careers and the world of work curriculum framework.

Thank you. This is an issue I raised with the First Minister in a supplementary question yesterday. A number of councils, as you know, have taken the decision to cancel the work-experience placement for year 10 and 12 pupils, including Anglesey. And, again, I declare an interest as the parent of two children—one in year 10 and the other in year 12. Parents and pupils have expressed huge disappointment with this, particularly given the work that’s gone in to getting a placement with an employer and the keen competition for placements in some cases.

Assessments of the appropriateness of employers used to be done by Careers Wales. You’ve confirmed in a letter to me that this has been removed from the remit of Careers Wales as a result of tightening financial positions. Do you accept, therefore, that there is a direct result between the decisions taken by the last Government, in terms of cutting budgets, and the fact that work experience is now being cancelled?

But there is a confusion here too. In your letter to me, you state that there are no health and safety regulations that make it a requirement for schools or local authorities to carry out assessments of workplaces for work-experience placements. But the Isle of Anglesey County Council refers me to documentation from the Health and Safety Executive that notes that schools do need to be assured that employers have carried out the appropriate checks. So, who is telling the truth here—you or the Health and Safety Executive? And, if it is you, then, what support have you offered to local authorities to give them the assurance that they can continue with work experience arrangements, which are crucially important?

Thank you, Rhun. First of all, I welcome the fact that we both recognise that work placements and work experience have a valuable role to play. I hope you will be pleased to note that I have identified some resource, some £2.4 million over the next four years, to support stronger work between schools and employers, and I will make an announcement shortly on how that is to be spent. I understand that schools have faced challenges following the removal of the work experience database and the health and safety checking of employers’ premises, which used to be undertaken by Careers Wales. But it is a source of regret to me that Ynys Môn and Gwynedd have decided to stop this altogether, and that is in stark contrast to some excellent practice that has gone on in other local authorities and in other schools to maintain this provision. And I declare an interest as a mother of a year 10 pupil myself, and my daughter and her cohort will be going on work placements later on in July, which have been carefully handled by the school.

I would commend the approach taken by Carmarthenshire council for instance, who have stepped up to the plate and have done tremendous work in creating a database for work placements, which will enable children in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire and beyond to avail themselves of this opportunity. And what is frustrating to me is that, in a small nation such as ours, good work that is being carried out in some local authorities, such as Carmarthenshire, cannot be spread more easily to other parts of Wales. And I will be asking the regional consortia to redouble their efforts to ensure that where individual local authority schools have been able to overcome these challenges, and implement a system that allows children to take part in these schemes, that we’re able to spread that good practice to other areas of Wales so that all children can participate.

I think we all recognise that access to work experience is incredibly important for young people, and not just any work experience, but decent, valuable experience that is not reliant on perhaps what’s easiest or who you know. Thinking back to my own work experience, I actually went to the ‘Flintshire Chronicle’, where you can find an article by Hannah Blythyn, aged 15, headlined, ‘Don’t criticise what you don’t understand: Having a Go at Politicians’. [Laughter.] That article was actually looking at how young people are stereotyped and need to be listened to, and I am now in a position to do something about it. At a recent event with students at Coleg Cambria in Northop, we talked about access to work, and work experience and things were discussed. And one of the things that they came up with was, alongside your traditional work experience, to look for things that have more taster-type sessions, where people can go into workplaces and experience the different options out there, post 16, to help them influence their decisions for their further education, apprenticeships and training. Does the Cabinet Secretary agree with me that that would be a good idea, with the young people’s idea, to do that, and what steps can be taken to make that happen?

I think what’s absolutely crucial is that we take into consideration what young people themselves will find useful. And I’m sure all of us will be aware of situations where people have found themselves perhaps doing the photocopying for a week, and that isn’t necessarily the most useful or stimulating or inspiring kind of placement. So, we do have to focus on the quality of those placements, and we have to listen to young people about what they find will be most useful for them, and that might indeed be shorter, taster sessions, that avail them of a variety of opportunities to look at a variety of careers. And we do often need to do that earlier on in a pupil’s life, because, sometimes, the choices that they’re making at GCSE level could be potentially cutting short, or cutting off, future careers options.

I would like to commend the work, for instance, of Powys County Council, who earlier this year organised a county-wide careers fair that brought together employment from across the county, both in the public and the private sector, to show young people the wide variety of careers that are available in the county of Powys, and to talk to them about how they can make educational choices that will allow them to take advantage of that. And it’s those kinds of innovative schemes that are being put on by some local authorities that should be applauded, and, again, we need to make sure that that is replicated as good practice across the nation.