We now move to a statement by the Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning on the employability plan. I call on Eluned Morgan to move the statement. Eluned.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am pleased to launch my employability plan today, and I start by thanking my fellow Members for their contributions to the development of this plan, because it is a cross-governmental scheme.

It is one of the prime responsibilities of Government to educate, train and prepare people for the world of work. A larger, more inclusive workforce is good for our nation’s productivity, but there are also individual benefits to work. Work lifts people out of poverty, and, according to Professor Stephen Hawking, work gives you meaning and purpose, and life can be empty without it.

Our vision is to make Wales a full-employment, high-tech, high-wage economy.  We want more people joining or returning to the world of work. We want a more inclusive workforce, with greater numbers of disabled people in work, and a decrease in the gender pay gap, as well as the disability, and black, Asian, minority ethnic pay gaps. We need to prepare people for a changing world of work, ready to meet the opportunities of automation, digitalisation and decarbonisation. But we won’t shy away from the challenges that this change brings either. There are predictions of significant job losses and disruption in the labour market. So, we are preparing now, by making sure our skills and training provision is closely linked to market requirements, that lifelong career development becomes standard practice, and that the needs of business can be heard and responded to quickly. The Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport will convene a taskforce on automation to consider the challenges and opportunities in this area, and I look forward to working with him to ensure that our workforce is prepared for the future.

With this plan, we offer a national framework which sets a direction and standards. We've set a series of stretching and ambitious targets relating to unemployment, economic inactivity and skills levels, because we're determined to make real progress on these within the next decade. But I'm aware that this won't be easy: economic inactivity and generational worklessness affects many communities in Wales, but our individual, hand-holding support will help people to tackle their own personal barriers to employment.

Under this national framework, there is room for flexibility at a local and regional level. Communities across Wales have different strengths and needs. We will work with partners at a regional level to bring together business, education and training providers, local government and the third sector, and ensure that they're working in co-ordination to meet the needs of the area.

Building on the economic action plan, we are identifying and promoting career progression and development opportunities within the foundational economy sectors. As part of our goal of reaching 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, we are encouraging employers to recognise the skills and contribution of Welsh-speaking workers. Acknowledging Welsh as a skill is something that we have to underline.

Our goal is to provide opportunities to create resilient individuals who have the skills, enthusiasm, drive and creativity to fulfil their potential, irrespective of ability, background, gender or ethnicity. This plan is a longer term view of how we can deliver this vision, and we'll be taking action in four key areas.

First, we'll provide individualised support for those who need it. We'll create a new, more streamlined and efficient system of support to help people into work. This will be responsive to an individual’s needs and it will be easier to access and navigate for individuals and their advisers. Our new employment advice gateway will operate a 'no wrong door' approach and will be the first port of call for people who are not in work.

Working Wales is our new employability programme, which will support people into work by removing barriers and raising skills levels. The programme will support unemployed, economically inactive and not in education, employment or training individuals aged 16 and over to enter sustained employment, an apprenticeship, or self-employment. Procurement details for Working Wales will be released at the end of this month.

Secondly, we're asking employers to do more to support their workers. Upskilling the workforce is central to our goal of increasing productivity levels in Wales. Employers have a responsibility to upskill their workers, support their staff, and provide fair work. We're calling on employers to play their part in promoting healthy and inclusive workplaces and prioritising skills development so that those in employment can thrive in work. We encourage employers to work with unions and other social partners where possible to invest in the workforce and to plan for the long-term future of their companies and the future of their staff.

Thirdly, we'll respond to local and national skills gaps. We'll set out a national framework to prioritise the areas where we see growth potential and skills gaps. Of particular importance are those areas identified as priorities in the economic action plan, and those sectors most likely to be affected by Brexit. Working in partnership on a regional basis, we'll ensure that the supply of qualifications in higher education, further education and work-based learning matches the needs of the local and regional businesses.

And finally, we're preparing for a radical shift in the world of work. Wales must be ready for the future. As a nation, we'll prepare today to meet the skills requirements of tomorrow, so we can harness the full potential of emerging technological developments. We know that the pace and nature of technological change is increasing dramatically. The sectors that have traditionally driven our economy may decline and new and emerging sectors will take their place. We're reforming our education system already to encourage ambitious, capable learners who can contribute creatively and enterprisingly to the world of work as informed and confident citizens. But we must also support the ageing workforce, who must be able to upskill and learn throughout their lives in order to thrive in employment. To achieve this, we're scoping a pilot individual learning account scheme, which will provide funding for retraining in priority sectors. We also recognise the growth in self-employment and are working with partners to support those setting up in business.

We are, however, living in politically unstable times. We're clear about the task ahead and how we plan to act to increase employment and make Wales a high-tech nation, but unforeseen events may knock us off course. This could include a significant economic hit as a result of a poor trade deal with the EU or if the UK Government were to renege on its promise that Wales would not be financially worse off as a result of Brexit. Many of our employment programmes hitherto have been financed by the EU, and we will work closely on future funding arrangements with the UK Government.

This plan provides the long-term vision and national framework that Wales needs to support people into work today, while preparing for the radical changes of the future. I look forward to working in partnership with organisations across Wales to deliver the actions outlined in this plan.

Thank you. Mohammad Asghar.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank the Minister for her statement today. We all recognise the importance of education and training in providing people with the skills that are required by employers to gain decent and sustainable jobs for the future.

The Minister says the Welsh Government has set a series of stretching and ambitious targets relating to unemployment, economic activity and skills levels. Can I ask if the Minister will publish those targets and provide regular updates in this Chamber on progress on meeting these targets within the timescale, and within at least the three years of the term of this Chamber?

The Minister will be aware that businesses in Wales remain concerned that the money received from the apprenticeship levy is not ring-fenced for skills training in Wales. In England, employers who pay the levy receive vouchers to spend on staff training, while smaller employers are also eligible for help. The Confederation of British Industry has said that the ideal would be a single system for using the apprenticeship levy across the United Kingdom. We are, after all, a single economy in a single country. May I ask: what consideration has the Welsh Government given to introducing a voucher system in Wales? Businesses must have a big say in how the money is spent on skills and training to ensure we deliver the workforce that our economy needs in future.

I welcome the Minister's assertion that we must make sure that our skills and training provision is closely linked to market requirements. Can the Minister outline how the Welsh Government intend to engage with the business sector to ensure this is achieved? The Minister commits to responding to local and national skills gaps. Around a third of all apprenticeships currently are in the health and social care sectors. We need to address skills shortages in areas like ICT, engineering and construction, as well as financial and professional services. The importance of this was recently highlighted by the announcement of Persimmon Homes that they were recruiting more than 700 construction workers, including bricklayers and carpenters in south Wales. So, that's a great opportunity for the skills sector to seize this great opportunity. The Construction Industry Training Board Cymru has estimated that they will need more than 5,000 people over a year to deliver their current aspiration for the next five years to allow contractors to employ and upskill the workforce it needs.

Minister, what emphasis is the Welsh Government giving to providing skills training in this sector to ensure that we have sufficient skilled Welsh workers in place to take full advantage of the opportunities in future and that are being provided by these businesses?

The Minister also says that she will provide individualised support to those who need it, so can I also ask about the subject of financial help with the living costs for apprentices? What do you think about that? There is substantial evidence that financial barriers, such as transport costs, are discouraging and, in some cases, preventing young people from taking up apprenticeships. When will the Welsh Government be in a position to respond to the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee recommendation that apprentices should get the same financial help with living costs as university students across the country?

In conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, I also would like to ask the Minister—. The young, the disabled people and the senior citizens, the skills sector there is a bit lacking, and also the armed forces community in this country. So, what is the Government motive on that side—or steps she's taking to make sure they're not lagging behind? Disabled people, women.

And pay gap: an area we heard of very recently. I know that, you know, Mr McEnroe is a great tennis player. His salary and Martina Navratilova: she only takes 10 per cent—£15,000 and £150,000 gap in what the media in this country is paying to these people. Women—.

[Inaudible.]—planning in Wales, so—.

What I'm saying is there is a gap in different areas in the private sector—I'm saying private. So, is there any motive in this Government—? The private sector should be encouraged to make gender balance in the pay sector. That's my point. It shouldn't be like that—that there's a big gap amongst the men and women: they're doing the same job, but the salary is not the same. I'd be grateful. Thank you.

Thank you, Mohammad. I think some of the targets have been set out in the document, so you can be assured of the direction of travel there. I will be looking at producing more granularity; I think it's important that we look at the regional impact, and what it looks like regionally, so we will be really monitoring this in a very coherent way, but we'll be doing it systematically over a long period of time. So, I hope you'll hold me to account on that because it will be important for me to make sure that we are delivering, and one of the things we will be doing is making sure that we pull together all of the different large organisations that are working in this space. So, we've already spoken to the Department for Work and Pensions so that we're not all chasing after the same people who may be economically inactive; that we're co-ordinating our efforts.

The apprenticeship levy: well, wouldn't it have been lovely if the UK Government had actually consulted with us before they introduced it? Because that is part of the problem. It was just imposed on us, and now we're having to work with the system we have. I'm not sure if I would be promoting the voucher system in England if I were you. There has been a massive collapse in the number of apprenticeships in England in recent months, so I'm not sure if that's a model we want to be following, but what we will not compromise on is the quality of apprenticeships in Wales.

On the construction sector: we've been doing a lot of work in this sector. Qualifications Wales has been looking at this in detail: what is it that employers are looking for? What are the standards and qualities that they're looking for? And they've been working with FE institutions, but one of the things that we will be asking is that FE institutions will respond. We're asking them to respond to the regional skills partnership. So, we've got all of these employers now telling us what they need, we now need to make sure that that is transferred and explained to further education colleges and that they then respond to that, so that we can provide those employers with the skills that they're looking for.

And just finally on disabled people in particular: we've got a lot of work to do in this area. Only 49 per cent of disabled people in Wales are in employment. We've got a lot of work to do here. It's really interesting: when you ask employers to help, a lot of them are willing to do that, and there is a lot of support that the DWP can give as well. So, we'll be doing a lot more work in that particular area, I can assure you.

I do think that we should applaud the Government in terms of the ambition set out with these targets. Some of them are very far-reaching indeed: closing the gap in terms of skills, and in terms of the various qualification levels between Wales and the rest of the UK over a period of a decade. Now, that is ambitious, but can we know what resource is being allocated in order to meet some of these targets? There’s scant mention of an increase in funding for these programmes, if truth be told. So, can the Minister give us some idea of the level of investment that will underpin this plan?

Can the Minister also explain the rationale for reintroducing individual learning accounts? It's an old policy, scrapped by the Welsh Government seven years ago. It wasn’t seen as being a great success. In England, of course, it was scrapped because it caused one of the greatest ever cases of financial fraud. So, understanding the Government’s rationale would be of assistance there.

In terms of the community adult education sector, the Minister’s predecessor made a policy statement back in the summer. Because it is a sector that has seen significant erosion in its funding over a period of time, it was pledged that there would be new funding available, that there would be a new structure and a new plan in place. Can the Minister tell us a little about that in relation to the plan that she has outlined?

In terms of this focus on an individually tailored approach, I think there is great merit in that, but could that be extended to track individual progress once they have left formal education? For example, the kind of tracking work that’s been done very successfully in Ceredigion, and to link that with one idea of how we can close Welsh skills gap, namely by attracting students back to Wales, after they’ve left to study in England, to try to attract them back, as our party has been emphasising for quite some time.

Then, finally, reference was made to the need for Welsh language skills. Of course, we have seen evidence from the Welsh Language Commissioner of the particularly low figure in terms of apprenticeships offered entirely through the medium of Welsh—I think it was 0.3 per cent that was the figure given by the Welsh Language Commissioner. Can we have a target for the provision, certainly in terms of vocational provision, which is very low at the moment, and also apprenticeships, so that it can contribute not only to the policy of 1 million Welsh speakers, but also to enable Welsh speakers to reach their potential in terms of their skills too?

Thank you very much. First of all, I’m pleased that you acknowledge that it’s ambitious, but I do think that we should be ambitious. We should be clear about where we want to reach. We’re not going to do this overnight, but what was really important to me was that we were entirely clear where we wanted to reach and that we put steps in place in order to reach that point.

So, how are we going to reach those levels? Well, if you think about something like reaching level 4 in terms of skills, for example, we are around 50,000 people behind as compared to England. Well, there are 100,000 apprenticeships here, and one of the things that we’re trying to do is to push people along that skills pathway so that more people have level 3, 4 and 5 apprenticeships, and there are fewer on the lower levels. On the lower levels, we are reaching more or less the same target as in England, so we need to push that further, and that’s what we’re doing at the moment. So, I think we’re on the right track there.

In terms of the learning accounts, I’m aware that this has been done in the past. I think that we do have to have some kind of practical response to the fact that automation is going to happen and that we need to have something for people who are already in the world of work. How are we going to upskill them and give them an opportunity to move ahead? So, things have changed. No funding will be changing hands as happened in the past—things have been digitalised, you can do things differently—and that’s why we want to trial a pilot to see what will be possible in that particular area, before we consider whether we should expand that across the whole of Wales. We’re waiting for the report on adult learning and what we should do in that particular field, but I’m very aware that we do need to do some work in that field. Hopefully these learning accounts will feed into that as well.

In terms of tracking individuals, what we’re doing here is tracking unemployed individuals. So, let’s start there. One of the things we’re not going to do once we’ve given them work is to just let them go, because we know, especially with those people with low levels, when they go into work for the first time, they tend to fall out of the system. So, we’ll be tracking them at least for six months, to ensure that we do keep them in the world of work and give them the support. Because that’s one of the problems: we can’t just let them go the moment that they’re in the workplace. Some of these people have quite significant needs and we do need to be there for them during that period.

In terms of apprenticeships, there are more apprenticeships through the medium of Welsh. The Urdd undertakes a lot of them, but I do think that this is an area we should look into, so let me consider whether that’s something that we’ll be thinking about in future.

I warmly welcome the ambition of the plan, and as the Minister acknowledged, it's important to have measurable steps so that we can track progress over time. So, I have just two questions. I congratulate the Minister on publishing targets; I think it's important for accountability. I am a little concerned that the targets aren't smart targets, and four of the six targets are, in fact, targets to set other targets. So, would the Minister be willing to work with the economy committee to refine the targets to see if we can make them smarter?

And, secondly, on the issue of future skills, which you rightly indicated in your statement, we've previously discussed here that the digital skills being provided to schools are not progressing at the pace that they need to. You're right to say that the Donaldson curriculum has the potential to do that, but the planned activity at the moment is far too modest. The Estyn report recently showed that two thirds of all primary schools have inadequate levels of digital skills being taught. So, can you make sure that that is understood and seized upon with Government and that there is greater pace and scale put behind that agenda to achieve the objectives of your plan? Thank you. 

On targets, I am very well aware that what we've got here are headline targets and I'll be working with officials to make sure that we get much more focused targets and that we break them down, so that we're not just kind of crashing into it 10 years from now. We do need to make sure that we have steps of progress.

I think it is worth noting that, actually, we can't deliver all of this by ourselves. So, if the economy suddenly goes into free fall, then that's going to have an impact on what we're able to do. So, we just have to be sensitive. The Department for Work and Pensions also have a huge responsibility to take action in this space. So, working with them and making sure that we're not all going after the same people, I think, is really important. But we know, more or less, how many people are interested, even those who are economically inactive, who would like to go into the workplace. We just need to really break that down, not just on a Wales basis; we could do it on a regional basis, on local authority basis. We can really start to make those inroads, I think, and give people responsibilities to deliver on those targets.

On future skills, on digital, the Cabinet Secretary for Education is very well aware, I think, of the importance of digital skills. It was absolutely central to the Donaldson recommendations. I know that she's keeping a close eye on that. I don't think we've taken our eye off that ball for one second, but there is a recognition that we absolutely need to master this if we are going to really punch our weight in the global economy.

Thank you for your statement, Minister. I'd just like to pick up on a couple of points from the employability plan itself. First, I welcome the creation of the employment advice gateway. I think that getting advice and support from someone with expertise in drawing out the skills and experience of a work seeker, and who has the knowledge to guide a work seeker through the myriad courses and training that are on offer, is absolutely vital. 

One question I would like to ask, though, is: who is this going to be available to? Will it just be for NEETs and the unemployed, or will it be available to those in work who want to upskill? I'm very much hoping that you're going to say it's the latter, because we don't just need to get people back into work; we need to help people already in work to earn more and to keep more of their own money as well. A failure of some of the previous schemes to get unemployed people back into work is that they're intended to start to provide support some months into the period of unemployment. Obviously, the longer a person's unemployed, the harder it is for them to find employment, so, it's therefore very important that this advice and support is available from day one, and if the Minister could clarify that for me, I would be very, very grateful for that.

Turning to Working Wales, again, this programme has laudable aims and I really do hope that this ambitious plan works in the way it's been intended. However, how are you going to ensure that placing people in education and training will not be used as a cover for unemployment figures, and the Government's failure to provide a business environment that's conducive to job creation? Improving employability has to work in tandem with encouraging investment from those SMEs upon which the majority of people in the UK depend for employment. So, it concerns me that you're looking at placing more obligations on employers.

Encouraging employers to take care of the well-being and health of their employees is a perfectly reasonable and laudable request, and, of course, employers are already obliged to ensure the health and safety of their employees and workers. However, Welsh Government needs to be really careful that placing obligations on employers doesn't have the unintended consequence of reducing the level of employment generally, because, obviously, the more expensive employing a person is made, the fewer people will be employed. So, what cost-benefit analysis are you going to undertake to ensure that any new obligations you place on employers don't have the consequence of increasing employment costs and thereby reducing employment levels? Thank you.

Just to be clear, the employment advice gateway is targeted at unemployed, economically inactive people and NEETs, but Careers Wales is available for all, and it's the same organisation. So, the advice, and the possibility of going to Careers Wales for advice exists and is available for individuals currently. I think what's really important is that we really look at in-work poverty. That's the really big problem that we have today: in-work poverty. You're absolutely right, we can't just leave it at people who are already unemployed. We've got to encourage people to upskill and to improve the kind of employment that they have, so that they can get better wages and lift themselves out of that poverty. So, that's what we're hoping will happen as a result of this programme.

In terms of the focus on employers, I think we've got to underline that we're not doing this to punish them, we're doing this so that they can help themselves. If they invest in their own people, in their own workforce, then they are more likely to benefit. So, what's clear is that if you look at management, for example, in Wales, there's a lot of work to do in some areas to improve people's skills in relation to management and all other areas. So, getting them to improve the skills and abilities of their own workforces will improve their own productivity and improve, sometimes, if they're a private sector employer, their profit margins. So, we know that that is the case.

Like others, can I thank you very much for bringing forward the statement? It deals, clearly, with a number of vital issues that are essential to the future of local economies across the whole country. But I'd like to raise two specific issues. One is very basic, practical and not strictly in your portfolio, so if you'll just bear with me, because you do actually mention it in the plan, and that's about people being able to get to and from their training opportunities and work opportunities, because that's pretty fundamental, really. If you don't have your own transport and no reliable local bus services, then that's clearly a hugely important element of any employability plan. Yet, right now, for example, I'm dealing with complaints in my constituency of local bus services that are leaving communities isolated at those critical commuter times in the morning and in the evening, and the current system of bus regulation—or rather, deregulation—which allows this to happen, isn't good enough. So, would you agree that if we don't tackle the issue of reliable public transport, then we are going to fail to support many of those who are attempting to get into training and work, and that there's a significant piece of cross-governmental work that needs to be done in terms of your plan and the need to provide reliable local public transport?

Secondly, can I welcome the recognition in the plan of the value of the work that's carried out by the Wales Union Learning Fund, or through the Wales Union Learning Fund? And I'm sure you'll welcome the success that the programme has delivered in many of our workplaces, helping to develop employability and the essential skills of the workforce—in a number of cases, actually providing people with the most basic literacy and numeracy skills that they actually left school without. And can I seek your assurance that this will continue to be a key feature of any employability plan?

I think it's worth emphasising that this programme is a cross-Government programme, so this has been negotiated and discussed across the whole of Government, so that's why there are so many different factors in it, and that issue with transport has been underlined more than once as being a key feature of actually blocking people from getting to the workplace. I know this is something that the Valleys taskforce discussed recently, and there's a real appetite, in particular, I think, in the Department for Work and Pensions, to recognise in particular that in some of those Valleys areas, some of the rural areas, this is a feature that needs to be addressed. So, we're talking to the Department for Work and Pensions to see what we can do in that space, but I absolutely accept that that is a real problem, irrespective, really, of what you put in place in terms of public transport, it may be that we need to be a bit more creative than that.

On the Wales Union Learning Fund, absolutely. I think there's a real recognition that sometimes—. I think you, Dawn, were the one who told me that, sometimes, employees don't want to go to their employers and admit to having a certain lack of skills, and being able to go to your union reps to say, 'Actually, can you help me here?' is a real help, not just to those individuals, but ultimately to the businesses themselves as well. So, I was very pleased to award some prizes to people involved in the WULF programme last week.

Thank you very much, Minister.