The next item, therefore, is the statement by the Minister for Education on Adult Learners Week, and I call on the Minister for Education to make her statement. Kirsty Williams.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. Adult Learners Week is an annual campaign co-ordinated by the Learning and Work Institute in partnership with Welsh Government. Each year, we see over 10,000 adults in Wales participating in Adult Learners Week activities. The campaign raises awareness of the value of adult learning, celebrates the achievements of learners and providers, and inspires more people to discover how learning can positively change their lives. I intend to use my statement today to highlight what we as a Government are doing all year round in that spirit of Adult Learners Week.

Members will be aware that in my progressive agreement with the First Minister, we committed to exploring how we can deliver a new Welsh right to lifelong learning. Work is under way within Government and with the adult learning sector on how we take this forward. I’m very grateful to the Learning and Work Institute for hosting a recent seminar on the issue, and I've asked HEFCW to promote and challenge the role of universities with regard to place-based adult, community and lifelong education.

I attended the Inspire! adult learner of the year awards on 5 June, and want to, once again, congratulate Andrea Garvey, who won this year’s Inspire! adult learner of the year award. These awards are the launching platform for Adult Learners Week, and I was awestruck by the dedication, the resilience and the bravery of the learners that I met. Their attitude to learning, their determination to reach for a better life and their sheer strength of character was astonishing. I draw a parallel with the purposes of our new school curriculum—to develop enterprising, engaged and ambitious citizens and learners. And it is equally valid to view these as the purposes for learning that is lifelong.

If we are to succeed in making Wales the strong, confident nation that we are striving for, then we must invest in people throughout their lives. Our adult learning policy rightly prioritises essential skills, and we offer this provision in the heart of our communities where our learners feel safe and secure. But we cannot disregard the huge numbers of people who need to reskill or upskill. We cannot afford to allow people to languish at the bottom of the ladder because we haven't given them the opportunity to climb right up it. That's why I'm pleased that our community learning and employability programmes support our most vulnerable adults. We deliver essential skills, qualifications and work preparation training to support people to overcome barriers to entering employment, whilst reskilling and upskilling working and unemployed learners.

Our new Working Wales employability advice service is now operating and it makes it easier for people to access professional careers advice and support to access education, employment or training. In the autumn, we will begin a two-year pilot for our personal learning accounts that aim to support adults who are in low-paid or low-skilled employment to gain the skills and qualifications needed to either switch careers or progress to a higher level in their existing employment. Presiding Officer, there is no single definition of adult learning. It encompasses learning at every level, from pre-entry to degree, and takes place in a variety of venues, from community centres to our universities. I am committed to widening access to further and higher education, ensuring that any learner with the potential to benefit from education post 16 has the opportunity to undertake it.

This evening, I will be attending a reception to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Open University. Since the OU first opened its doors in 1969, over 200,000 students in Wales have studied with them. The OU delivers distance-learning opportunities to around 9,000 people in Wales each year, making it the largest provider of part-time higher education in the country. And it is the global university that is also everyone's local university. I'm really excited that the Open University has been contracted to develop our new teacher education programmes that will widen participation in teaching. These new routes into teaching will break down barriers, delivering a whole new generation of teachers from different backgrounds, improving the learning experience of pupils in our schools, and, crucially, increasing the diversity of our teaching workforce.

Of course, flexible part-time distance learning makes a significant economic, societal and individual contribution and our reforms to student finance has seen the OU reporting an increase in applications of almost 50 per cent, and an increase of more than a third in the number of part-time undergraduates receiving student support. About half of the part-time students that we are supporting financially this year will receive the maximum level of maintenance grant and this makes all the difference for students who have other financial commitments in their lives. I would remind Members that Wales is the only country in Europe to deliver equivalent maintenance support in loans and grants across modes and levels of study. I will be making a further announcement on postgraduate incentives and support for older learners very soon.

This week also marks Refugee Week, and on Thursday, along with the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, I will launch the ReStart refugee integration project. This initiative will offer a one-stop shop for refugees who are settled in Wales and will provide support and advice on a variety of issues, including education and English for speakers of other languages provision.

Campaigns like Adult Learners Week are vital. This week is a celebration; a celebration of all aspects of adult learning, and will provide people with the opportunity to try something new with a host of activities taking place across our nation. The importance of engaging in learning, at every level, can never be underestimated. Engaging in an activity during Adult Learners Week can be that critical first step back into learning and onto a path to create a new and better life, and I would encourage everyone to get involved. Diolch yn fawr.

I'm grateful to the Minister for her statement today, and I join her in congratulating Andrea Garvey. The aim of Adult Learners Week is to raise awareness of the value of adult learning, celebrate the achievements of learners and providers, and inspire more people to discover how learning can positively change their lives. The fact is, adult learning is key to a forward-thinking and diverse economy for the future. It provides Wales's workforce with the ability to gain new skills and knowledge to improve employment outcomes. It is therefore imperative that adults are encouraged to participate in learning at any stage of their career, whether it is through in-work learning or personal study.

Despite social and economic benefits, over the years, the number of people enrolled in adult community learning has declined significantly. Adult learning has long faced the brunt of Welsh Labour Government cuts, which have hindered the sector's ability to provide flexible, consistent and accessible courses, contributing to the decline in those enrolled. It is only right that the Welsh Government commits fully to prioritising this marginalised sector, to ensure Wales can offer a consistent high standard of adult learning opportunities across all parts of Wales—north, east, south and west.

The main challenges faced by adult learners are how to balance work and family commitments together with financial barriers. So, I ask the Minister: what support does Careers Wales provide to adults seeking to take up educational opportunities? How can Careers Wales be better utilised to provide more tailored support and advice to adults seeking to further their careers, as well as to young people?

In 2016, Estyn's report on adult community learning provision stated:

'In most ACL partnerships, financial reductions have had a significant impact on provision and staffing levels.'

Since the publication of that report, what action has the Welsh Government taken to ensure that adult learning providers receive the funding and support they clearly need?

Finally, Minister, in 2017, the Welsh Government adult learning in Wales policy document stated—as a matter of fact, you stated—and quote:

'We will fund the provision of Essential Digital Literacy Skills up to Level 2'.

And you continue to say:

'We will continue to support the delivery Essential Employability Skills up to Level 2'.

Have you undertaken any impact assessment to determine how effective the support for such qualifications has been? What assessment has been made of what more needs to be done to help adults who are learning new qualifications to achieve higher qualifications in Wales? And also, this area needs people with disabilities, some other issues, ethnic minorities, LGBT and especially gender balance in this field. It's desperately needed to improve this sector. Thank you.

Can I thank the Member for his recognition of the importance of adult learning and the real impact that that has on individuals and on wider society? I think, Presiding Officer, I did mention in my statement that the new Working Wales employability advice service is now up and running. The purpose of this new service is to provide and respond to the very issues that the Member raised, in ensuring that adults have access to professional careers advice that can help them access adult learning, work-based learning, extra training opportunities, to help them reach their goals.

I also recognise—. And the Member asked what more we're doing. I did mention in my statement that in the autumn we will have a new pilot of personalised learning accounts. Those are specifically for people who are in work. Often, our employability plans have focused on those—understandably, quite rightly—the furthest away from employment, but actually we do know that there are people in work who need the opportunities to upskill and reskill, and the pilot will be a valuable intervention for those particular workers.

With regard to funding for part-time, the Member is not wrong. Given the impact of austerity, difficult decisions have had to be made, and it is not unreasonable that previous decisions focused on providing full-time opportunities for our youngest people. It's a tough choice to make, but I think that there is certainly a logic in prioritising those learners. What we are doing, where we can, given the difficult financial situation we still find ourselves in, is to be able to find innovative ways to support adult learning in the round. So, for instance, we have introduced a new part-time funding methodology that protects the provision of ESOL, basic skills and GCSE resits, but also allocates the remainder of that funding on a population data level across all colleges. Therefore, in addressing this issue, wherever you are in Wales, we are looking to re-engage part-time provision, which in the past has been too patchy. We are putting in transitional arrangements in this financial year to make sure that no individual college loses out. But, the result of this reform will mean that access to part-time FE will be much more equitable than it has been previously.

I think it’s important that we all acknowledge the importance of Adult Learners Week, and, as has been done already, to thank everyone in the sector who is working so hard and diligently in this field. I acknowledge that it’s a very important thing, as part of our society, that people can learn, whatever age they are and whatever subject they might be studying, be it to do with reskilling or whether it’s in the context of them just wanting to learn something new at a different time in their life. I think that’s what’s important—that we recognise learning for its own sake, rather than learning in order to get some sort of qualification at the end.

I have a series of questions. Certainly, this week, we have heard that 180 posts are at risk at Allied Bakeries. We've certainly heard that posts are at risk in Ford in Bridgend. That, then, is going to have an impact on the education system, because a number of those people who are working in these sectors are going to need to develop new skills and to find new jobs. Last year, we heard the Future Advocacy think tank suggesting that one in three posts in Wales are at risk as a result of automation by the early 2030s, and Alun and Deeside is the most vulnerable constituency and will see the greatest impact in that regard. So, considering the economic impact and considering some of the factors related to automation, could you tell us whether you have seriously considered these forecasts? What provision can you make to upskill and reskill those people who are going to be requiring that? And, how are you going to include that within the adult learners’ system? Following on from that, what discussions have you had with the Minister for the economy to mitigate the impact of the development of automation on our employees, and the impact that that will have on opportunities within the specific sectors that I have already mentioned?

A number of us have received e-mails from Age Cymru and you've said that you are going to be making a specific statement on older people, so thank you very much for that. But we have received an e-mail from Age Cymru to say that lifelong learning and the opportunity to take part in educational activities is important to a number of older people to develop new skills and knowledge. We have heard from the Bevan Foundation that only one in 20 learners in lifelong learning are 65 years of age and above. The location of courses, the accessibility of facilities, the lack of range of courses and a lack of advertising, specifically advertising that isn't on the web, are impacting that age group’s ability to engage with education in the way that they would like. So, what’s your assessment of lifelong learning as a well-being tool, as well as it being an opportunity to develop skills for employability? How is the Welsh Government supporting the development of resources to ensure that lifelong learning is seen as a tool to deal with life stages, including loneliness, retirements and experiences such as grief and so on? What discussions have you had with the local government Minister to improve mobility and accessibility in libraries and other education centres, for example, to ensure that accessibility isn't a barrier?

The third element, as you've already heard from the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, I believe, is on the regional skills partnerships. FE colleges and people in that sector have told me that there are some difficulties with the regional skills partnerships and the suggestions that are made to them. There is evidence from that sector that suggests that there is a gap between what the partnership and the Government expect them to do and what is realistic for them to do on the ground, and perhaps they're too detailed and prescriptive with regard to what is being asked of them. So, I acknowledge that we do need to give some sort of steer for Government spending, but is there a way to be more flexible with what is happening on the ground in terms of the courses that are being provided, so that they're a response to what people want to do, but also a response to what the economy requires and what we require as a nation as well?

I was in a meeting with some veterans yesterday and they mentioned to me the fact that, when they come out of the armed forces, quite often their transferrable skills are not recognised, so they may have specific skills in engineering and such, but it's not recognised if they need to go into an entirely different work landscape, and they end up on benefits, or they end up homeless, actually, because they haven't really found a place that they can go to try and change that reality for themselves, and to get a job in something that would suit them. But they're not being told how they can transfer those skills. I'm wondering what work you can do through the adult education sector to help those veterans to realise their potential so that they're not in those vulnerable positions.

My final question was—you will be aware of the Augar review and the fact that they're doing this learning through life concept, and you will be responding to that, I know. You've mentioned earlier the personal learning accounts. I just wanted to understand whether that was the same thing, or whether it was something that you're working in conjunction with the UK Government on, because I've had conversations with the Open University especially who are very interested in the expansion of that type of thing, where, if you're working in a position and you've managed to do quite well but you haven't got a degree, or another person is in a position where they want to do extra qualifications and they can't get financial support to do that, how are we facilitating their ability to do that when they're in full-time work and when they need that support. So, anything that you've got to add to what you said to the previous question from Mohammad Asghar would be very helpful, thank you.

Could I thank Bethan Sayed for, once again, her recognition of the hard work that is going on the length and breadth of Wales in this important field, and also to recognise that informal, non-accredited learning is often the very first step that some people need to undertake before they move on to a more formal accredited learning? So sometimes we can be perhaps overly dismissive of what seems mostly a social activity, but actually that can be often the crucial hook to get somebody building their confidence, building their self-esteem, reconnecting with learning, especially for those people for whom perhaps school, and their first opportunity of learning, has not been a positive experience. So like you, I think we should recognise the role that informal, non-accredited opportunities can play. It is important.

The Member asked whether I have meetings with my colleague Ken Skates with regard to the impact of automation. The Government is very alive to the threats but also the opportunities of automation. Undoubtedly we need to be in a position that the Welsh workforce is skilled to take advantage. Every time we've seen an industrial revolution or a big step forward in the world of work, naturally there's a great fear about the negative impact, but there are also opportunities, and we need to be alive to where the future employment opportunities are going to be, and to ensure that our workforce has the skills and the aptitudes to be able to switch and to be able to move into those new opportunities should they become available. The Government has commissioned a specific piece of work to look at the potential impact of automation on the Welsh economy and what we will need to do to respond to any new opportunities that will arise out of that. 

The Member recognised that, in my statement, I said that I would be making an announcement with regard to older learners shortly, and I am due to meet with the older person's commissioner on Thursday of this week to talk about these important issues for our older citizens. Having recently visited a class in Merthyr Tydfil that was frequented—. I think their oldest learner was in her 90s. She left me in no doubt of the importance of continued availability of that particular opportunity. It certainly was delivering all sorts of benefits to her in terms of combating social isolation, making sure she had an opportunity to engage with like-minded people on a subject that was really important for her, and, again, we want to make sure, as we develop our Welsh right to lifelong learning, that we encompass our older citizens in that. 

The regional skills partnership is an increasingly important way in which we can align our education and training provision with the needs of our economy. Sometimes, there can be a tension between what people want to study and learn about and actually what qualifications they need to be able to gain gainful employment. The Member will be aware that we have set aside an amount of money for FE colleges to be able to respond proactively and positively to the request of our regional skills partnership, but we recognise that sometimes there is the need for flexibility on an institution-to-institution basis. We're alive to that. But my call to our colleagues in FE, which I delivered in a speech at their conference just last week, is the need to work collaboratively with our regional skills partnership so that our learners, at whatever age, are able to take advantage of training opportunities and learning opportunities that are going to be meaningful in the context of employment in their area. Because most learners want to be able to use those skills to be able to work their way up the employment ladder to give them and their families opportunities. Making sure that there is an alignment between what our FE colleges are providing and the needs and the opportunities for jobs after a period of learning is absolutely crucial. 

I obviously take a great deal of interest in the Augar report. What's interesting about Augar is the headlines, of course, have been dominated around fee structures for FE, but actually the Augar report has some very interesting things to say about lifelong learning. I think, actually, in Wales we are potentially in a position to look at some of those recommendations and perhaps move more swiftly than our colleagues in England, given the chaos that currently reigns. Whether the Augar report will ever see the light of day is another question in terms of an English context. But there are some interesting things that it has to say about FE and adult learning, and, as I said, we're currently working with our partners to ensure that we develop a right to lifelong learning in Wales.

But, of course, the Member talks about opportunities for part-time study. For those people who may have caring or working responsibilities but want the opportunity to re-engage in learning, just two very practical ways in which we're making that a reality is our support for part-time learners. As I said, the Open University has seen a 50 per cent increase in applications just this year because we are proving the financial support to enable those individuals to go back to studying. But I also recognise that a full-time course of that nature might not be right for the individual. Our personal learning accounts will give greater flexibility in our pilot areas in north Wales and south-east Wales where it may be a shorter course or a specific professional qualification that is needed to help you switch your career or move up the career ladder. So, that gives you a flavour of the flexible way in which we're trying to support those people who are trying to engage in learning to assist them and their employment prospects. 

It's great to have this statement in Adult Learners Week, because it reminds us that it is never too late. At whatever age you are in life, you keep on learning. It was certainly the case for me when I went back to do my Master's in my mid 30s, it was the case for my late mum when she did her Open University course in her 60s, and it was definitely the case when I was holding a surgery up in Gilfach Goch last Friday, and when, towards the end of the surgery, when I was having a cup of tea, before the day centre provided me with a lovely fish dinner and custard tart as well—before I did that, in came, 70 years young, Gwyn David. Gwyn wanted to tell me a little story. He'd been up here in Cardiff at the old coal exchange last week, at the Inspire! awards. Gwyn David, at 70 years of age—a guy who has not had an easy life and who, at the age of 19, went into Hensol with mild learning difficulties, and spent 20 years of his life overcoming those issues and being told he couldn't achieve—got learner of the year in the Inspire! awards at 70 years young. He loves education, he loves learning, he loves telling other people about it.

And that's what we're here to say: genuinely, whatever it is, whether it's changing career, new training, new education or, frankly, doing things like Bridgend County Borough Council are doing at the moment in every community centre, in every hall, in every library—tourism, IT, consulting, CV writing, buying and selling for small businesses, stress management—we all need that—holiday Spanish, holiday French, organic gardening—. Or Bridgend College, the further education college of the year at the TES further education awards this year, and doubly excellent according to Estyn, providing, in Adult Learners Week this week, free taster sessions in things like horticulture or modern languages, and so on. It is never too late. We all need that second chance. Some of us need a third, fourth and fifth chance as well, but we keep on learning, and I think the statement today is welcome, because it says that, in the myriad of adult learning that we have—full time, part time, taster courses and everything else—everybody should keep on learning and we need to do everything we can in Wales to make sure that people have that opportunity. And my question to the Minister is this: how do we make sure—? What's the best practice in the co-ordination of this so people know that, wherever they are—in Gilfach Goch or in Caerau, or wherever it is, not just in the centres of learning—there are opportunities for them? What's the best practice in sharing that co-ordination so that everybody knows they have that chance to have a second chance?

Can I just say in response that I had the opportunity of meeting Gwyn at the awards ceremony? Like the Member has just said, at the age of 19, Gwyn was admitted to Hensol and spent decades of his life in that institution. They were not happy years. He spent much of his time isolated, alone and, I'm ashamed to say, often drugged and sedated. The fact that Gwyn is now living life to the full and is the life and soul of the group in Gilfach is tremendous. And what he had to say to me was that he has no intention of stopping learning any time soon. And what learning has given him is power—power over his life to make decisions about how he spends his time, and power that, for so many years when he was at Hensol, did not belong to him.

If you're not inspired by Gwyn, then you would be inspired by Andrea Garvey, who, as a young mum, aspired to study the law. And now she has done just that. Having completed a law degree at Swansea University, she is currently studying for her Master's at Swansea University. She has a particular passion for miscarriages of justice and has been greatly involved in the work that Swansea law department does looking at cases and looking at new opportunities to examine whether there has been a miscarriage of justice. She was nominated by members of her family who are just so proud of what she has achieved. 

I left that evening—and, I don't know, I think we could all do with signing up for the stress management course—and it certainly inspired me to think about doing my Master's, and I'll be older than my 30s, Huw, but, as you said, it's never too late and I may have that opportunity to do just that. 

I want to make Wales a second-chance nation, or, as somebody said, maybe we need a third chance, or a fourth chance, or a fifth chance to go back and engage in these activities. We have signed up as a Government to creating that right to lifelong learning. The challenge for me now is to turn that right and that concept into a reality, a reality for the Gwyns of this world, the reality for the Andreas of this world and, who knows, even the reality for the Kirsty Williamses of this world. 

Diolch i'r Gweinidog am y datganiad yna.