Well, nobody wanted to see the kind of cuts that were imposed on the FE sector, but that was a deliberate decision by the UK Tory Government in relation to austerity. That is the consequence of the cuts. We have to make decisions, we have to prioritise, and this was the decision that was forced upon us, that we did not want to take, but we had to take, because of that austerity decision, which is a political decision. That was a political decision that you did not have to make. But let me tell you about the sector itself. Compared to England, our FE sector is the model of stability, and I think that the coherence and the financial stability of those FE colleges is something that the Welsh Government has been working very diligently on over the past few years. So, I am confident that those colleges are in a much, much better place than any of the FE colleges are in England.

In relation to colleges being able to derive additional income, I'm very open to that. In fact, I would encourage them to do a lot more of that, but in order to do that, I think they need to become a little bit more flexible to respond to the needs of learners, who may not be able to fit into the hours that colleges currently provide. So, I'm hoping that they will be more responsive. One of the things we've done to try and encourage that is to put £10 million on the table to say, 'You can access this pot if you can provide learning to people that coincides with the kind of priorities and the local skills that we've identified are needed.' And we've asked them to provide that and they've been really responsive and that's good. But I think that's the first step. I would certainly like them to become a little bit more flexible, so more than anything, I would like the public sector to really take a much better role in terms of engaging with the private sector so that they can be delivering these courses, rather than the private sector.

You're talking about part-time learning again. The cuts have been significant and that's why what we've had to do is focus on specific areas. So, we've focused on basic skills, on digital and on English for speakers of other languages learning because we've had to, because that is what has been forced upon us by the UK Government. 

Just finally on the industrial action, I'm really delighted that we have been able to come to a conclusion on the industrial action. There will now be parity in terms of pay for FE college lecturers with sixth-form lecturers, but we've gone further than that—we've also helped to make sure that it's not just college lectures, but other people who are in the support services, some of whom are on very low incomes, who will also benefit from this additional support that the Welsh Government has put on the table.