5. What plans does the Minister have to reform post-compulsory education and training in the next 12 months? OAQ54741

Officials are drafting legislation to establish the commission for tertiary education and research, and that will be published in the spring. 

I recently met with a representative of the National Union of Students Wales. They pointed out that the current legislation defines student unions and outlines how they should look, but it does not place a duty on post-16 education providers to actually have one. They say any reform of the post-16 compulsory education and training sector provides an opportunity to strengthen the legal footing on which student unions are placed. What plans do you have, Minister, to place a duty on all post-16 education providers to have a student union that is politically autonomous, structurally independent and fully-funded?

Student voice will be a central plank of our PCET reform legislation.

What are your plans—? As I said earlier—I mentioned apprenticeships. What are your plans in this regard to put apprenticeships at the heart of the PCET proposals? I know, of course, that this is an area that is in the economy and transport brief, but in my view—and I'm sure you would agree—an apprenticeship for young people should be viewed as an extension of an educational process rather than something separate from it, and when I speak to those in the apprenticeship world, they seem to feel a bit disassociated from the college set-up. So, I'm just wondering how you can use the PCET changes to make sure that non-work-based key skills and off-site education days can be properly made available to those particular students as well.

Well, it's important to recognise that our proposals to establish the commission for tertiary education and research will cover all post-compulsory education and training, including work-based learning and apprenticeship providers. It's also really important to recognise the significant growth in the diversity of apprenticeship programmes. Many people will continue, I suspect, to think about an apprenticeship as something that is undertaken by a young person at either age 16 or at 18. But increasingly, we are looking to develop our portfolio of higher-level apprenticeships and, indeed, this year, we have seen the first cohort of our degree apprenticeships, where students are learning on the job and in their university of choice. It's a really important development for students who don't want to make a false dichotomy about learning in an academic institution or developing an apprenticeship. We shouldn't make them make that choice; we should be able to provide an opportunity that allows them to combine both, and that's exactly what we're doing with our degree apprenticeship programme.

But, bringing higher education, further education, sixth forms and work-based learning all under the auspices of one organisation should allow us to see greater diversity of opportunity for students and for students to move more seamlessly through different sectors of post-compulsory education and training.