Well, I thank the Member for her questions and the constructive tone with which she engages with the range of issues, and I think the range of questions that she asks demonstrates the breadth of the Bill and the scale both of the challenge and the opportunity, I think, which we are seeking to make sure our sectors are best placed to engage with.

On the important question of timing, I absolutely understand the context for the question that the Member puts, but I do think that it's the confluence and the context in which we find ourselves that actually makes the need for the Bill more urgent, really—so, she mentioned COVID, obviously, importantly, but it's the week of COP, and we understand the transformative impact that climate change is having on our society, on our economy; our new relationship with the European Union; the need that she refers to in her own question to enhance lifelong learning provision as people remain in work for longer, but may need to adapt their skills more frequently during their working life and to manage periods out of work; and the digital challenge as well. All of those are coming together at the same point in time. Any one of them is a significant challenge. So, I think it's the confluence of those that offers opportunities as well as challenges, which, I think, makes the timing absolutely right for this Bill.

She raises an important point about the composition of the board. The board's appointment will follow the public appointments route in the usual way, and a range of skills will be needed on the board from a range of backgrounds, both education but also industry and beyond. So, the initial appointments will be made in terms of the chair, the deputy chair, the chief executive for the first appointment, and the board, by Welsh Government through the public appointments process, and I hope that will give her some reassurance. In terms of the associate members, which are the ones I referred to in my speech, that will be a matter for the commission itself.

I think she raised an important set of points about the relationship between schools and the post-16 sector, and, of course, sixth forms are at the heart of that Venn diagram in many ways. And I think that's why it is important that the Bill brings sixth forms within the compass of the commission, albeit indirectly in a sense, because I think that will lead to a more coherent set of arrangements. And I think she makes a very important point about ensuring that pre-16 education and post 16 is a sort of seamless journey in that sense, and I think this Bill is intended to bring some coherence at the point. I think that the relationship with sixth forms plays an important role in ensuring that continuity and that continuum of learning in the way that she describes.

There are a number of points that she made in relation to the impact of COVID, as I think she—. We are monitoring the progress of the cohorts that have been most directly affected in a very periodic way, and we've published some information already about attainment, about courses that people are going into, the performance and so on, just because we recognise, as I know that she does, the particular impact on that cohort. And that information will, I think, be an asset in the work that the commission can do.

She spoke about the importance of making sure that everyone has access to the opportunities that the Bill will enhance, and including those most directly impacted by COVID, and I couldn't agree more with her. One of the key duties on the commission is the duty of equality of opportunity, and that is to ensure that all learners from whatever background are able to flourish to their fullest extent in all parts of the tertiary sector, and I know that she will share that ambition.

In relation to apprenticeships, this Bill will, I think, transform the ability of our apprenticeship system to be responsive in the way that her question encourages it to be. There is a very significant investment programme that we have as a Government in relation to apprenticeships, and I think being nimble, being able to react to the needs of the economy in a way that is straightforward, is at the heart of that, and the Bill will support that.

Finally, she makes a set of important points in relation to lifelong learning. Again, one of the key duties on the commission is to promote that. There was a piece of work that we anticipate receiving imminently from the Wales Centre for Public Policy, which will help us understand better what the opportunities are in terms of lifelong learning, and she will have identified in the Bill that the funding mechanism for FE includes a mechanism that enables that progressively to be expanded to make a reality of that lifelong provision.