Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:32 pm on 21 September 2021.
Llywydd, I thank Jayne Bryant for that further question, and, of course, she is right that the position for students looking to study vocational courses or to take up apprenticeships has been particularly volatile over the last 18 months because many of the opportunities that those young people would have looked for in the workplace have been disrupted by coronavirus closures. We've seen, as a result, a larger proportion of learners opt for studying A-level courses in A-level settings because you don't have the same level of potential disruption to the vocational element. We expect that that phenomena will continue into the start of this year. Because the position is very volatile, and with a very strong recovery in the economy, when more opportunities in the workplace will begin to emerge, the Welsh Government has provided a further £5 million to further education colleges to allow them to recruit additional learners should people change their minds during the autumn term and come back into the vocational and the apprenticeship route.
I strongly endorse, Llywydd, what Jayne Bryant said about the importance of vocational education and the success of the apprenticeship programme in Wales, and both of those will be supported by further measures over the weeks and months ahead.