Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 23 February 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:15, 23 February 2021

Well, Llywydd, the event that I referred to in answering Jayne Bryant's question is an event that will be run by the careers service, so I would be very disappointed if it were the case that the careers service is actively continuing stereotypical directions for young men or young women in the workplace, and I'm sure that that is not the intention of the service.

It's an uphill battle, as the Member will know. I agree with her that there's far more that needs to be done. I have a young grandson, and you have to work really hard to make sure that you don't end up just buying things that are pushed at us all as being the right things for young boys to have, rather than offering a more rounded idea of what life could be like. And that is certainly true for young women who have got all of those things pushed at them by the commercial world and so on. So, the Welsh Government puts its shoulder to the wheel in the opposite direction, using the services that we have, and the many people who are there in private businesses as well as in the public service who want to make sure that that wider range of opportunities is positively promoted to young women and girls entering the workplace. We do it in a world that still has some pretty deep-seated conventional attitudes and so on, but that just means that that work is all the more necessary.