10. Short Debate: Longer learning for better, safer lives: The case for raising the age of participation in education in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:21 pm on 15 May 2019.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 6:21, 15 May 2019

Thank you ever so much for that, Lynne. I listened with great interest and with my shadow Minister hat on. Certainly, I'd like to see the reports you referred to, but also I thought the idea itself has a lot of merit in it. I appreciate what you said about the English system; what I would say is that bit of it—it's work, education or training, and perhaps where there's always space for a little bit more innovation is to look at what training actually looks like. The point you made about—was she called Emily—actually getting, later in her life, a brand-new start, effectively, through adult education is not something we should overlook either, because there'll always be people who lose out first time, even second time. That's why I just wanted to mention briefly, if you don't mind, that it wasn't so very long ago that it was the over-50s who were the largest cohort of people who were unemployed not through choice. So, I just want to mention the work of Prime Cymru, who actually help re-educate people who are much older than those who you are talking about, to give them their fourth chances, if you like, even to start businesses of their own in their late 50s. So, we are talking about education as a lifelong experience, but the particular points you've made in your short debate today I think are really interesting, so thank you very much for bringing them to our attention.