Diolch, Llywydd. I’m very pleased to be leading this debate this afternoon on behalf of the Welsh Conservative group. Before I go into my comments this afternoon, can I declare an interest as a part-time HE student here in Wales? Further and higher education has a broad and beneficial impact on our Welsh economy and society, but it’s not just those who are aged under 24 who can contribute to this positive impact. That’s why I’m glad, fresh on the back of Adult Learners’ Week last week, that we have the opportunity to debate the current and future role that part-time education and lifelong learning plays in the developing nature of our country and its people.

Before I develop my contribution, I just want to address the amendments that have been tabled. We will be supporting amendment 2. Plaid Cymru are quite right to highlight the level of uncertainty that our FE and HE institutions are experiencing because of the Welsh Government’s failure to confirm its proposals for student support and higher education funding for 2018-19. We firmly believe that there needs to be a proper three-year financial package and plan in place. But in terms of amendment 1, while I hear what the Government is trying to say about its plans for the future, I do believe that Careers Wales as it stands simply is not fit for purpose. It’s hugely under-resourced and it’s not delivering the sort of independent and bespoke advice that our learners need at the moment, so we will be opposing that amendment.

So, whilst there’s quite rightly a focus on full-time further and higher education, this, I’m afraid, has come at a price of it becoming the assumed default mode of provision. When society thinks of students, I think it’s fair to say that most of us commonly associate this with a picture of those going straight from school into university or college. But a significant and growing number of adults wish to begin or to continue further or higher education at a different stage in their life, and we’ve got many people who need to overcome challenges to enable them to study. Negotiating their finances, finding a flexible course to fit around existing work and family commitments, or having to access course information can significantly hinder their ability to enter into part-time education. By 2022, a third of our workforce will be over the age of 50, and yet the majority of Welsh spending in education is primarily directed towards children and young people. At present, those between 18 and 24 will have almost 100 times more invested on his or her education by the Welsh Government than someone aged between 50 and 74. Moreover, when we look at the number of young people who are not in employment, education or training in Wales compared to people between 50 and their pension age who are not in employment, education or training, the figures are startling—more than a three-fold difference: 60,000 compared to around 200,000. Of course, this disadvantage is felt the most in our deprived parts of the country.

So, the reality is that if we pursue our current trajectory, we’re in danger of laying a trap for our future economic development and personal well-being, because we will fail to utilise the full capabilities and potential of all in our workforce, and we will fail to develop that potential and that talent in parts of Wales that are already being left behind. So, faced with this demographic shift, developing the future framework and resourcing of adult learning is more important than ever to ensure that the Welsh economy has the skills that it needs.

Adult Learners’ Week has just finished. It was its twenty-sixth year of celebrating and promoting those who’ve already undertaken the journey into further and work-based learning—a fantastic initiative, I’m sure that we would all agree. On top of that, of course, we’ve had the Inspire! Awards, which emphasise how education is one of the most useful and powerful tools that we have as an enabler for everyone, from any age or background, to positively shape and change their lives.

So, it’s our intention, in debating this issue this afternoon, that we can move from the focus on full-time education to, instead, recognising the true and huge potential that part-time learning can provide. As the 2014 jointly commissioned report from the Open University and the National Union Students ‘It’s About Time’ argues, part-time higher education is about many things, but, at the end of the day, it ultimately hangs on one crucial factor, and that is time. Those returning to part-time education are often juggling other commitments. They’re caring for their families, they’re pursuing a career already, or they’re trying to overcome personal struggles to restart or redirect their lives. Sometimes, they’re doing all of these things together, simultaneously.

Just over 40,000 people here in Wales are currently enrolled in part-time higher education. They’ve decided to set aside weekdays, in the evening, after work. They’ve made personal commitments, and they’re persevering, very often, through financial and family pressures to achieve a qualification, to retrain themselves, to upskill or to seek an intellectual challenge. And I think their commitment and willingness to invest their time, their resources and their energy means that we here in this place should also be making a commitment back to them and we should try to do everything we can to make the choice that they have made easier.

But it’s clear from the current trends, I’m afraid, that adults are finding it more and more difficult to enrol in part-time education, because the numbers, in recent years, have been on the decline. Part-time learning decreased by 21 per cent in one year between 2015 and 2016 in further education institutions and there was an 11 per cent fall in those studying part time in higher education in the same year. In addition to that, learners in local authority adult community education in the same year also fell by a quarter. So, since 2011-12, there are 21,000 fewer learners each year in local authority adult community learning provision, down from 35,000 to just over 14,000.

Now, I appreciate that the Government has looked to address entry into part-time higher education in particular, and that’s why we’ve been on record as welcoming the provisions of the Diamond review, the recommendations of the Diamond review and the trajectory that the Government has embarked upon. I think it’s absolutely right that that gives part-time students parity of esteem in terms of the financial support that they can get to access higher education. But, of course, further education also needs a boost as well in terms of support and access into that, and Diamond doesn’t actually address that in the way that many of us had hoped that it would.

Turning back to higher education, at present the two priorities to address, of course, are financing and flexibility. We know that recent research from the OU shows that nearly a quarter of those in part-time higher education actually use their savings to fund their tuition fees, and another quarter funded their education through paid work while they were studying. But, worryingly, 17 per cent of learners, according to the OU, have used debt, including credit card debt, overdrafts and payday loans, to fund their tuition fees. These figures show that the current system is simply not working for part-time students.

It’s not accessible, particularly for those who are in low-wage employment in those most disadvantaged parts of Wales. They’ve got particular challenges, I think, that we need to help them to overcome. So, we’ve got debt aversion amongst mature students, and I think that that also is perhaps contributing to this downward slide in the numbers of people who’ve been entering part-time higher education and, indeed, further education in recent years.

Now, we know that postgraduate loans are going to be available from this September. I think that that’s a very welcome thing, but, of course, we need to ensure that there is some certainty beyond this next academic year for those postgraduate provisions, and indeed for all other students post the Diamond review. In the current system, loan applications for part-time study are open for submission later than those for full time, and these applications can be made only offline via hard copies, not online as with full-time students. Why? That’s not accessible, it’s not acceptable, and it creates hurdles—additional hurdles—for people to overcome.

And for distance-learning students at the moment, it’s particularly discouraging, because they face a long delay between enrolling for a course and then being able to apply for a loan, and that’s why we’re calling upon the Welsh Government to provide an all-age careers advisory and education service, because, currently, potential adult learners are simply not getting the support that they need. They’re not getting access to that impartial information, advice and guidance in the same way that full-time students actually are. We also need to ensure that part-time finance options are clearly articulated to those students, so that people can consider those actively when they make their applications, so that they can be confident that they’ve got the resources in place, not just for the first year that they embark on their course, but right through to the end of their courses as well.