2. What action is the Welsh Government taking to increase the number of apprenticeships in Islwyn? OQ57681

These actions were set out by my colleague the Minister for Economy last week when he committed the Welsh Government to invest £366 million over the next three years to deliver an increased number of 125,000 all-age apprenticeships across Wales, including, of course, in Islwyn.

Thank you, First Minister. The Welsh Labour Government's avowed commitment to ensure at least 90 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds will be in education, employment or training by 2050 is a hallmark of the progressive agenda of this socialist Welsh Labour Government. First Minister, when I speak to my constituents, whether they be a grandmother in Crumlin, a father in Cwmcarn or a young person in Crosskeys, invariably one of their most pressing concerns is the availability of employment, training and apprenticeships in the communities of Islwyn for the next generation of Welsh workers. First Minister, with £1 billion—£1 billion—in promised post-European Union funds missing from this Welsh budget and directly accountable to the UK Tory Government's broken promises, what mitigating measures can the Welsh Government take to ensure that this fundamental aim to reshape the Labour market in Wales is delivered? And First Minister, what message also do you have to employers in Islwyn about the value of apprenticeships to their companies' futures?

I thank Rhianon Passmore for that question. She is absolutely right to point to the fact that that absolute guarantee that we were offered on the floor of the Senedd as well as everywhere else—that Wales would not be a penny worse off as a result of leaving the European Union—has been comprehensively broken and abandoned by the UK Government. In not a single year of the three-year period covered by the comprehensive spending review will money available to Wales reach the level that would have been available while we were members of the European Union. Some £375 million a year would have been available to Wales. We get £92 million next year, £161 million in the year after, and even in the third year of the comprehensive spending review we end up with £345 million. 

Let me be clear, Llywydd, that this is not simply—[Inaudible.]—we are being short-changed from what the Government said in its manifesto for the 2019 general election, and what the Chancellor said in the comprehensive spending review only a few short months ago. We will never, under Conservative plans, get back to where we were, let alone, as they promised, as a minimum—and that's the phrase they used, Llywydd, 'as a minimum'—that we would never be a penny worse off in any single year. It's simply not true, and of course it has an impact on the ability of the Welsh Government to invest in the sorts of skills programmes that are vital in terms of apprenticeships. 

Rhianon Passmore asks me what message I would give to employers in Islwyn. My first message would be to thank them—to thank them for the way in which they themselves play their part in offering young people the opportunities that apprenticeships bring. I've looked recently at the range of opportunities there are for young people in Islwyn who want to take the apprenticeship route, and there are apprenticeships available in the local health board, in the local authority, in local schools and in the private sector—in retail, in travel and in fitness. The single largest number of apprenticeship opportunities available in Islwyn comes in the care sector, Llywydd—20 opportunities or more available to people willing to go into that vital foundational economy industry of the future. 

My message to employers is, as I say, to thank them for the commitment they show already to assisting with the apprenticeship programme. It delivers for young people but it delivers for them as well. It helps them to create that skilled and committed workforce of the future. We need more employers in Islwyn and elsewhere to come forward to be part of that vital investment in the future of Wales.

First Minister, I welcome your Government's commitment to providing 125,000 all-age apprenticeships in Wales over the next three years. However, I'm sure that you will agree with me that we need to ensure quality as well as quantity. It is vital that these apprenticeships should smooth the school-to-work transition of younger workers and support the transition of existing workers into highly skilled senior roles. First Minister, will you commit to setting a series of clear aims for your apprenticeship programme so progress can be measured to ensure it meets the needs of employers and trainees, and delivers the skilled workforce required by the Welsh economy today and in the future as well? Thank you.

I agree very much with the general sentiments of the Member's question. Of course, we have to focus on the quality of the opportunities that the apprenticeship programme brings. As she said, it's not simply for young people; these are all-age apprenticeships—very often, people looking for a second start in life, an opportunity to retrain and put themselves into a different part of the labour market. It is why the modern apprenticeship programme in Wales reflects that wide variety of needs.

I think, Llywydd, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I was discussing with Alun Davies the success there has been in Blaenau Gwent in the shared apprenticeship programme, where a number of small businesses are able to get together, any one of them by themselves not able to support a full apprenticeship, but together able to create those opportunities and to benefit from them by bringing somebody into the workplace and sharing their learning, and sharing, then, their developing skills amongst them. It's why we have put such an emphasis on graduate-level apprenticeships. I know that the Member will be aware of the way in which our investment in those degree-level opportunities has made such a difference, for example, in the cybersecurity cluster—the largest cybersecurity cluster anywhere in the United Kingdom, which we now have in the south-east of Wales.

That range of opportunities means that we're able to match the needs of the individual with the sort of experience that will do the most to help them to make the progress they're looking for in their own lives. And, of course, we do measure all those opportunities. We measure them numerically but we measure them as well, as the Member suggested, in the quality of the experiences that are on offer, in the qualifications gained and the benefits that that brings to the wider economy.