6. Statement by the Minister for Education: Adult Learners Week

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:56 pm on 18 June 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Bethan Sayed Bethan Sayed Plaid Cymru 5:56, 18 June 2019

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.