Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Last month saw the one-year anniversary of the launch of the young person's guarantee here in Wales. This key programme for government commitment provides under-25s in Wales with the offer of support to gain a place in education or training, support to find a job, or support to become self-employed. I recognise the importance of work for our young people, and I want all young people in Wales to be able to benefit from the rewards that good work brings—not just the financial rewards, but the sense of purpose and pride that comes from having a job. The weight of evidence also tells us that the interventions we make now will help young people maintain better paid work over the course of their working life.

Dirprwy Lywydd, we know that the pandemic has meant that many young people have lost out on valuable work experience and training opportunities very early on in their careers. Employers have lost out on recruiting prospective employees and opportunities to create a new, more dynamic workforce. The impact of the pandemic on our labour market is still unfolding, but we're clear about the need to learn lessons as we move forward. 

In the wake of the disastrous UK Government mini budget mark 1, a bleak economic outlook from the Office for Budget Responsibility and Bank of England, and the loss of replacement EU funds, I am more concerned than ever about the employment prospects of our young people. And the recession is likely to cause higher unemployment. The loss of over £1 billion of EU replacement funds means that the Welsh Government is less able to prevent job losses or provide the same level of support for those impacted. Many businesses continue to face weakened trading conditions caused by significant problems with the trade and co-operation agreement with the European Union. Against this backdrop, and a smaller real-terms Welsh Government budget, I have worked to prioritise the young person's guarantee as far as possible to help protect the prospects of young people most at risk in the uncertain times that we face. The young person's guarantee draws on all programmes and provision across the training, education and employability sector to match the complex and diverse needs of young people across Wales. Since we launched the young person's guarantee, we have seen over 20,000 interventions delivered through our employability services alone, and 11,000 young people have started on Welsh Government-funded employability programmes. By April this year, there had already been over 18,600 all-age apprenticeship starts following the beginning of this Senedd term.

Young people have faced extraordinary circumstances and deep uncertainty in recent years. Rites of passage that many of us take for granted have been upended. We should pay tribute to the way that so many young people have adapted to plan for their future, support their peers, families and communities. That lived experience is something many of us would struggle to comprehend. It reinforces why we must listen to the voices of young people to ensure that the decisions that we take support their next steps. Those experiences and next steps will shape business operations, culture, health, education and our society in the years to come. 

The Prince's Trust have reported that more than 60 per cent of people aged 16 to 25 have said they're scared about their generation's future, with one in three concerned that their job prospects will never recover from the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. To help overcome these fears, we continue to run our Feed Your Positivity campaign, which aims to provide young people with positive messages and support to enable them to begin or change their life story. The campaign was a response to the impact of the COVID pandemic and has been designed to counter the negativity the economic backdrop injects into discussions around job prospects and challenges to mental health that young people are exposed to. Part of that campaign saw the Welsh Government sponsor October's Skills Cymru event—the first since the pandemic. I had the pleasure of seeing first hand the positive response from young people as they met local and national employers and high-quality education providers face to face, to gain expert career advice and to have a helping hand in planning their careers. This year saw over 5,000 young people and 45 exhibitors participate in Wales's largest free in-person careers, training and apprenticeship event.

Dirprwy Lywydd, the national conversation has been at the heart of the young person's guarantee, developing our ability to better understand the issues that young people face. At the beginning of last year, we set ourselves the challenge to address how to better reach young people, how to communicate in a way that wins and maintains trust.

We have found that generation Z, as some call them, are more prudent, serious and climate conscious than their predecessors, and that education, employment and their future prospects are top priorities. They are more likely to celebrate diversity, and are balancing their desire for constant connection and the latest technology with concerns about privacy and security. Unfortunately, it is also a generation that is facing significant mental health and confidence barriers. We are seeing more young people than ever who are economically inactive due to health reasons, not just here in Wales, but across the UK. What we can be sure of is that the scarring effect of the pandemic is beginning to take effect. That is why we have a continued focus on those who are most vulnerable. Focusing on those not in employment, education or training is crucial if we are to address the threat of a long tail of unemployment or economic inactivity in years to come. We have already acted decisively on ways to improve how we identify those young people who might need additional support the most. The refreshed youth engagement and progression framework, which Jeremy Miles, Lynne Neagle, Julie Morgan and I co-published in September, will play a key part in putting appropriate support or provision in place to ensure that young people are identified and supported before they reach a crisis point.

Jobs Growth Wales is already supporting over 3,000 young people—Jobs Growth Wales+, I should say, Dirprwy Lywydd—aiding their transition into the labour market and delivering catch-up activities for learners as a result of the impact of COVID. We've also linked up access to the basic income pilot and are looking at further collaboration to increase the package of support for those facing complex disadvantage. Over 2,700 young people have been supported by our front-line local authority-led service, Communities for Work+. That's up from 1,700 since my last statement. It is encouraging to see more young people come forward to receive one-to-one intensive employment support and training within their local community.

For those who have entrepreneurial ambitions, in a little over three months our young person's start-up grant already has 120 participants, working with business advisers to review their business ideas and help develop their business plans to apply for the grant. Seventy-five young people, in the brief period of time that the grant has been available, who were previously unemployed, have since been awarded a grant to help start their business. Every further education college in Wales now has a dedicated employment and enterprise bureau. They will be called different things in different colleges, but they are providing a breadth of employment support and opportunities to streamline the transition from learning to working.

We will continue to celebrate our success and promote Wales as a great place to live and work. That's why I was so pleased to see Wales's achievements at the World Skills UK finals in Cardiff last month, where, once again, Wales topped the leader board within the UK, with a total of 59 individuals winning awards. As shown in today's draft budget, the Welsh Government will continue to stand by, and stand up for, our young people. In the face of the worst financial outlook since devolution, I call again on the UK Government to do the same. The strength of our economy depends on acting with the right support now. Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd.