I'd like to thank the Members of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee for producing this report—thank you—on apprenticeships in Wales. It is clear that qualitative apprenticeships play an essential role in our economic success, as well as in building a stronger, fairer and more equal Wales. I'm proud of the Welsh Government's commitment to create 100,000 apprenticeships by the time of the next Assembly elections. These are qualitative apprenticeships, meaningful and targeted, as identified by the OECD interest in our wider economic action plan. There is much for us to be proud of, but of course this report identifies there is more that can be done.

I am glad that the Welsh Government has accepted the report's recommendation to do more to tackle gender prejudice and wider access to apprenticeships. As has been said, although 60 per cent of those pursuing an apprenticeship are female, they are too often guided towards lower-paid sectors and, despite many educational initiatives, are noticeably absent from STEM subjects. It is vital that we tackle such gender disparities if we are to build a fairer and more equal Wales, and so I very much welcome the Welsh Government's platform of wider initiatives on STEM and its response pledging to do more to get women into these priority sectors, including the clear expectation on progression pathways needed to close the gender pay gap, and the fair work commission agenda. 

Indeed, just this morning, the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee was hearing about the role of apprenticeships in tackling the gender pay gap through getting more women into predominantly male employment sectors such as engineering. It is right, and it is an expectation in Wales, that employers and apprentice providers adhere to the equality toolkit, which includes modules on gender identity, stereotyping and unconscious bias. This importance attached to ending the inequality and the gender pay gap is critical to the Welsh Government's calls for action, the economic action plan, and the economic contract, which the OECD and the World Economic Forum are exemplifying in Wales.

I also welcome the report's recommendation to do more to tackle the under-representation of disabled people in apprenticeships. The establishment of an inclusive apprenticeships working group, which will publish an apprenticeships disability action plan, is also a welcome development, and it is vital that we reduce the barriers currently preventing disabled people from accessing apprenticeships.

In an era of enforced austerity from the UK Tory Government, some barriers to accessing apprenticeships are also very much financial, including the report’s finding that transport to and from training or learning centres takes up to 20 per cent of apprentices' wages. Again, it is right that the Welsh Government has accepted in principle the committee’s recommendation to create a hardship fund for the apprentices on the lowest pay, or create other concessionary travel rates. I understand consultations are currently being reviewed on these issues, and that there are concerns that concessions to apprenticeships could amount to a taxable benefit. As such, I would like to ask if the Welsh Government has yet spoken to local authorities in Liverpool, Sheffield and the west midlands who have introduced similar schemes.

So, to conclude, I wish to commend the stance that Wales has taken in the provision of qualitative and targeted apprenticeships in Wales, and will continue to enhance them, I believe, for the future workforce and the future productivity of a fair Wales.