Welsh Government's been working very hard to incentivise employers to recruit apprentices to help people back into work and to help the economy to start moving again, and we've recently extended our incentives to support businesses in Wales to recruit apprentices up until February 2022. The apprenticeship employer incentive scheme is a key part of our COVID commitment to support businesses and workers to help them recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. And those incentives have already seen more than 5,500 new apprentices recruited since August 2020. 

The points you make are well made in terms of the construction industry and other industries that will be particularly impacted by both the pandemic and, of course, Brexit. I will ask the Minister for Economy's officials to have a further discussion with the CITB to explore what more can be done in this area to ensure that there are construction apprenticeships available for our young people in Wales. 

You'll see that our programme for government does have commitments to increase apprenticeships in care particularly, because that's another area where we're seeing particular challenges in terms of recruitment and, actually, particularly for Welsh speakers in that regard. We have a commitment to create 125,000 all-age apprenticeships during the course of this Senedd term and to expand the use of shared and degree apprenticeships. So, certainly I'll explore further with the Minister for Economy and ask for his officials to explore further with the CITB what more can be done in that specific area.