Thank you for your statement. There has been some success in this area, so I’d like to welcome the headline figures, but the statement does give us a very idealistic picture, which masks some of the problems that are developing in this area.

The first thing that I have to ask is: could we have a better delivery system in terms of learning in the workplace? At present, money will be procured by training providers, which, to a certain extent, have created a false market, because they’re sustained by Welsh Government funding. Do you think it would be better to tackle apprenticeships by having an education system for individuals and funding apprenticeships in a way that reflects that? Have you considered alternative models that would see new partnerships with local authorities and FE colleges, for example, and linking employers directly, or through non-profit organisations, rather than private training providers? In Denmark, for example, apprenticeships and training based in the workplace are funded by the central Government and the regional Government, working directly with employers and ensuring that apprenticeships, and those who receive training, are funded through public education services. This gives more flexibility and portability if, for example, someone would like to change their apprenticeship while staying in that education system. So, I’d like to ask you whether you’ve looked at alternative models.

Could you also outline briefly the decision that was made to exclude the current procurement exercise for the employment support programme Wales Working? I tried to ask a question last week, but it wasn’t chosen, but the sector found that this procurement had been excluded, but Assembly Members hadn’t had the statement until the end of last week. If this is a new strategy with a new agenda, how is continuing with the old system going to achieve that? I’d like to understand the Government’s thinking on that.

Moving on to Welsh language apprenticeships, a number of us are very concerned about the figures that I’ve seen from Cymdeithas yr Iaith from 2017 to 2019. Only 230 out of the 58,665, or 0.39 per cent, were Welsh-medium apprenticeships. If we are really serious about reaching the million Welsh speakers that we discuss here every day, then we need a variety of different skills through Welsh-medium apprenticeships. How are you going to expand this number significantly and ensure that appropriate areas of Wales can have more apprenticeships through the medium of Welsh? For example, if we have housing associations in areas where Welsh is very strong, shouldn’t apprenticeships have more access to that kind of apprenticeship through the medium of Welsh? What are you going to do about that?

As has been stated earlier, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has said that we need to do much more work to get women into apprenticeships and not just in those apprenticeships that women are often linked to historically. There are a number of opportunities in the building and manufacturing industries, but it’s men, chiefly, who are having access to those and then getting better pay because of that. So, what are you going to do to ensure that that inequality comes to an end?

I’ve brought this issue to you before in terms of the potential to give free transport to those who are undertaking apprenticeships, if, perhaps, they live a long distance away from where they want to get to. I’ve had people in my area saying that it’s impossible for them to travel to their apprenticeships because they can’t get there to do that apprenticeship. So, what are you doing about that?