The Skills Gap

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 18 May 2022.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:45, 18 May 2022

Well, I can assure you that—I know that you've quoted an academic who feels strongly in support of the perspective that you describe—there are plenty of others who take exactly the opposite view. And she will have known that, yesterday, we had the Institute of Physics and the other comparable bodies for chemistry and biology here in the Senedd, and if you took the time to speak with some of those, you would have heard a lot of support for what is being proposed in relation to the new qualifications. Combining the qualifications provides additional space in order to allow learners to take additional exams, including in some of the STEM subjects that she is advocating that they should be encouraged to take up, and some of those in applied contexts, like engineering, as she mentioned in her question. And combining the sciences also enables connections to be made across the sciences, which is four-square with the ethos of the new curriculum—not simply to be learning, but to be understanding and to be understanding the connections between different parts of what you are learning—and I think that will provide the opportunity of doing that.

In relation to the work that she was mentioning in primary school, I think it's really important that we start the learner's journey very early on, understanding what the range of options might be for learners to study, for engineering or other STEM subjects in later life. There are a number of things that we fund which are specifically targeted at young people of primary school age, including in schools themselves, but also opportunities to go outside the world of the school to experience coding, space technology, and a range of other experiences that begin them on that journey, if you like, of understanding the range of options, broadening their horizons and, hopefully, encouraging many of them to take STEM subjects later on.