8. 7. Statement: Employability

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:40 pm on 11 July 2017.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 6:40, 11 July 2017

Thank you for that. I think the Member makes an enormous number of good points there. One of the things we’ll be looking to do is make sure that we can address individual requirements for particular support and make sure that people can access the jobs and skills they need in the area where they want them to do that. What we’re trying to do is basically get a programme that’s coherent all the way through. So, talking about the regional skills partnership and the North Wales Economic Ambition Board in north Wales, for example—they are tasked with sorting out what the labour market intelligence is telling them about the firms in that region, and what their skills requirements are. We will fund those skills requirements according to that information. The plans are due to come out in the autumn. Indeed, I think I’m coming up in the second week of September to launch that one for them. That will drive some of the investment that we make, both in our work-based learning practitioners and in our FE colleges in terms of the skills that they produce for that ecosystem.

The other flip side of that is to make sure that the businesses with growth potential get the support that they need and that we can make sure that careers advisers in schools—and, actually, for adults as well out in the community—understand the skills necessary to fit the needs of those employers with a growth potential. So, that’s very much part of the regionalisation agenda. The Cabinet Secretary for economy and myself have been working very hard to make sure that they align together, and indeed will align together with the local government reorganisation arrangements as well, so that we don’t have non-coherent overlaps and so on. So, that’s the plan.

Then, in terms of the rest of it, you’re absolutely right; we want to address that in a number of ways, sometimes with a big transport project, sometimes with just working hard with bus companies and so on to align timetables. My colleague David Rees here is often talking about the earliest and late buses to communities and what we can do about that. And sometimes, actually, with targeted programmes. So, for example, in some of the areas that I’ve gone on public consultation there’s a huge problem with people getting a driving licence. They simply can’t afford to buy the driving lessons and so on. Well, it may well be that we decide that that’s one of the things we need to address, either on an individual basis, if we’ve got somebody with high skills but transport problems, or actually on a community basis, if we identify a number of people who’ve got the same problem. It’s something we did last year, for example, where the haulage association came to us and said they had a big shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers. So, we put on a special course, and I think 140-something people, as a result, got good paid employment.

So, it is about this wraparound and getting the right information to the right people, both on the business side and on the individual side and marrying them together, and also targeting business support at those high-growth firms so that we can get the growth to match up.

Then sometimes it is about stimulating growth in areas where there hasn’t been any or where perhaps there is a dearth of jobs, and that’s why the Valleys is one of the target areas. But as I said in response to a number of other Members, this certainly isn’t the only area, and I’m very grateful if any Members want to highlight any issues in their particular area or region too.