5. What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve skills training in Wales? OAQ53808

The Welsh Government is supporting the development of a skilled workforce, including delivering 100,000 all-age apprenticeships this Assembly term. Our flexible skills programme is supporting businesses across Wales to upskill their workforce. We're working with the regional skills partnerships to ensure that skills provision in each region responds to business demand.

Thank you for the reply, Minister. The German vocational education training system combines both books and practical training embedded in a real-life work environment—it is called the dual system. In Germany, the Government does not pay employers to take on apprentices, but pays for equipment and the operation of vocational colleges. The companies who provide training contribute through larger shares of financing to dual training, which benefits both large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises. What study has the Minister made of the German system to see what lessons can be learned to improve skills training in Wales that better meets the needs of our Welsh employers?

Can I thank the Member for his question? I don't think there is a skills Minister that's served in this or any other Government since devolution that hasn't taken a keen interest in the German dual system and considered whether it could be transplanted from Germany to Wales. However, each and every skills Minister has concluded that we need to develop a system that's, okay, informed by the very best around the world, but one that doesn't necessarily replicate exactly any one single system. Indeed, the political theorist de Tocqueville warned against us simply trying to replicate cultures exactly as they are in different countries, because there are certain moeurs that cannot be transplanted from one country to another. Instead, you have to develop your own system that responds to your own distinct needs and the idiosyncrasies within your culture and society.

For our part, we now have an employability plan that responds to businesses' needs, but which reflects the individual needs of all people who access support. We also have a very strong apprenticeship system, one that is now—certainly compared to when I was at school—heavily promoted within schools and which truly gives people an opportunity to pursue the vocational route rather than the purely academic route. But in order to continue building a skills system that responds to the economy of today, we've developed regional skills partnerships across all of Wales to ensure that provision is based on what the economy requires, not just today, not just this month, this year, but three, five, 10 years down the line. And the work of the regional skills partnerships is, of course, informed by comprehensive labour-market intelligence and trends that, in turn, are drawn from various observatories. And I'm pleased that we commissioned Professor Phil Brown to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the role that digital and automation will play in changing the nature of work in the years to come. The work of that particular review will feed into all three of the regional skills partnerships, and, in turn, enhance our skills provision in Wales.

Minister, this April the Welsh Government announced a £3 million funding package for Food Skills Cymru, which will run until 2023, and over the first three years, this programme is expected to support 650 businesses. Minister, with the Welsh food and drink sector already generating £6.9 billion to the Welsh economy, isn't the Welsh Government investment a sign of the importance of improving skills and what that can do for the Welsh economy? And how will the Welsh Government continue to prioritise the ability to attract and retain a talented workforce and drive up skills within this industry?

Well, the Member makes a really important point about the economic value of the food and drink sector. I also think that food and drink have a—. They offer a powerful definition of the culture and character of a nation, and as we seek to promote Wales more distinctively overseas, I would expect the role of food and drink to only improve and increase, and I imagine that the work of both the Minister for rural affairs and the Minister for international relations will carefully consider the role that food and drink has in promoting the Welsh brand. Now, the food and drink sector in Wales has been identified as a sector of regional economic significance by all three of the regional skills partnerships, and they have, as I've already said, a key role in producing regional intelligence that is informed by employers, including employers from the food and drink sector.