4. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's plan for employability and skills? OQ57817

On 8 March, I launched the plan for employability and skills, and you'll recall that I also gave an oral statement in this Chamber, at which you were able to ask questions. I outlined our priorities to help more people in Wales to upskill, access and, hopefully, thrive in work, for a more equal economy that works for everyone.

I'm grateful to you for that response, Minister. Now, the Welsh Government's plan for employability and skills commits to reviewing adult education and lifelong learning and improving quality and access to skills-based formal and informal adult learning, and I'm sure that you'll agree with me, Minister, that, sometimes, shorter courses can be more effective than other routes at filling skills gaps. Therefore, can you tell us when the review of adult education and lifelong learning will take place, and can you tell us what discussions have you had as the economy Minister with skills providers about how the adult education and lifelong learning sector can be strengthened in the future?

There are challenges in this area that I'm discussing with the Minister for education and lifelong learning, and our joint engagement with the further education sector in particular. It's both about the way that funding is still up in the air—and we've had this discussion more than once about people's ability to engage in skilled work—and replacement EU funds aren't being fully matched and replaced. The Minister for education and lifelong learning will give more detail about the finalisation of the review into adult and lifelong learning, but I do think the way that we've set out our employability and skills plan, with the priorities we've set about who we want to see that investment made in, to ensure that people can return to the labour market or get closer to the labour market, will actually have the ability to make a real difference, and that will be about understanding the individual needs of people, not a one-size-fits-all approach. So, I'm sure the Member will be interested when we have more detail provided in the near future.

Minister, generation after generation in Rhondda have been let down by consecutive Tory Westminster Governments. Time and time again, we have lost employment as a direct result of their decisions. Our forefathers lost their industry. More recently, we've lost the tax office, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency jobs, Department for Work and Pensions offices and the local courts. We've lost police on our streets, among other public sector jobs, thanks to Tory austerity, and now Boris wants to shortchange Wales by £1 billion. If it wasn't for Welsh Government's investment in support of companies like E-Cycle and Flowtech, local businesses in our town centres in Treorchy and Ferndale, and initiatives like the Big Shed in Tonypandy, the remote working hub in Porth and the Court House in Llwynypia, we would see much higher unemployment figures in Rhondda. How will the employability and skills plan build on the success we are beginning to see in Rhondda, so we don't have to get out to get on?

Thank you for the question and the reminder of some of the significant challenges we have, and the £1 billion shortchanging in Wales in replacement EU funds will make a big difference to what we're able to do and the speed at which we're able to do it. In setting out our economic mission and the employability and skills plan, we're focusing on what we can do, so that's why we're going to continue to work to help to bring people closer to the labour market, those people who aren't there already, and we know that there are significant and differential outcomes for people with disabilities, as Joyce Watson highlighted earlier, but also economic activity rates in communities like the ones that the Member represents. So, I'm confident that we will be able to make a difference, but my frustration is we could do so much more if we had a UK Government on our side. I hope that, during this term, we'll see a change in that respect from the UK, but we're determined to do everything we can to make sure there's a better story to tell for the Rhondda and other similar communities and make sure we really can be successful and you won't need to get out to get on.