Economic Prosperity

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 2:19 pm on 26 February 2020.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 2:19, 26 February 2020

I wonder if I could ask the Minister what role he thinks the further education sector plays in developing the skills that can underpin our growth in economic prosperity for all, particularly in some of the more disadvantaged communities. We don't have an university in our immediate patch within Ogmore and Bridgend, but we have a fantastic FE college—it happens to be double excellent rated by Estyn, award winning, inclusive, and happens to be the Times Educational Supplement 2019 college of the year—in Bridgend. I recently went along to see the incredible work being done by four young women students in the Nemesis Inferno F1 model competition. They've won the UK heats of this—they've outcompeted every other team, not only in engineering, but also in enterprise, which is part of it as well—and they go on now to the European competitions. It's a combination of a collaboration between Pencoed Comprehensive, between the FE college in Bridgend, but also a range of partners and sponsors from industry as well. Isn't this a real exhibition of the contribution that FE and good sixth-form education, working with partners, makes to growing our economic productivity?