Thank you, Deputy Minister, for bringing forward this statement to the Chamber today. Apprenticeships are crucial, and I'm a big believer that today's apprentices are the leaders of tomorrow. We heard earlier that last week was National Apprenticeship Week. To mark that, I had the great opportunity to go back to my roots as an apprentice engineer. I was shown around DRB Group on Deeside industrial estate, where I served my time as an apprentice, and I was able to see how the company has changed, evolved and progressed since my time there. I also had the opportunity to meet a university graduate from my constituency, Joel Thomas, who has now gone on to go back to study as an apprentice support analyst to gain those valuable skills that you pick up on the job in the workplace.

We just heard in David Rowlands's contribution then of the opportunities growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, so I do welcome the Welsh Government's ambitious plans for the future of apprenticeships to address the skills gaps and opportunities, because we still feel the effects from a Thatcher-led UK Government back in the 1980s on this issue.

I want to begin by making the points that I've made before in this Chamber—I'm aware I've made them to previous Government Ministers with apprenticeships and lifelong learning in their portfolios. It's similar to Bethan Sayed's contribution, surrounding the training of apprentices and how we train them. 

Deputy Minister, do you agree with me that it is crucial and very, very important for the future of apprentices and future apprentices to have fellow work colleagues with the necessary skills to transfer their knowledge across to the apprentice? We know that many of those who are currently training apprentices will be reaching retirement age in some industries, just as my mentor has retired recently. Therefore, Deputy Minister, it is my belief that we need to train recent graduate apprentices to become coaches, which will enable them to deliver the results we need for the future.

So, with that in mind, what plans has the Government got to try to deal with this issue? Will the Deputy Minister commit that the Government will work with further education institutions, colleges and industry, for example, to create a package for graduate apprentices to pick up the necessary skills to transfer their knowledge to future apprentices?

Also, on the issue of ensuring that we have a different range of apprenticeships, which is also a very important thing to make sure that we have a diverse economy, my constituency is rightly hailed as the home of engineering, manufacturing and technology, and I speak heavily on that because that's my background. However, there are opportunities in many other sectors of the economy, and we need to do more to create those opportunities in the sectors people wouldn't traditionally think of for having an apprenticeship.

Deputy Minister, I know you already do, but will you continue to work to ensure that people have a diverse range of opportunities to create and gain apprenticeships in markets that aren't there now? We should never forget that apprenticeships are an investment in our future. We're giving current and future generations a chance to prosper, we're giving members of our community the chance to retrain and upskill, and we must do all we can to support them, to support industry and to support apprenticeships. Diolch.