5. How is the Minister working with the Minister for Economy to ensure the skills that industry needs are taught in the Welsh education system? OQ58905

The economy and education departments work very closely together to ensure that skills needs are met, with a key role for regional skills partnerships. Personal learning accounts is one example in my area, with targeted interventions in areas such as net zero and heavy goods vehicle driving already delivering successful outcomes.

I'm grateful to the Minister for that answer. Companies like Airbus in my own constituency are investing in decarbonising their operations to deliver the world's first zero-emission aircraft. This requires significant skills transition for the future to ensure Wales has the right talent to deliver the green manufacture of future wings in Broughton. Minister, can I ask you how your department is working collaboratively not only with the Minister for Economy's department, but industry partners and our trade union colleagues to ensure that our education system is delivering the future talent that a net-zero Wales needs? 

I think that's a really important point. That collaboration within Government and much more broadly than that is a really important part of our future in terms of skills provision in Wales. I think that collaboration between further education, higher education and big sector players like Airbus is a really exciting set of developments on the horizon, where you have technical, vocational, academic, applied research, and that offer being offered in a really joined-up, integrated way I think is a very positive future for our skills provision in Wales. 

In terms of what we're specifically doing in Government, the net-zero skills action plan that will be published by the end of February will, I think, set out much more fully the kind of questions the Member is asking today, but that presupposes close working between Government, industry, trade unions, but also schools and FE colleges as well, to make sure that this is part of the lifeblood of the entire system, really. One of the initiatives we're already doing is an e-module from September of last year. So, in this academic year, for the first time, every level 3 vocational learner is able to access a series of Net Zero Wales e-modules that are specific to their particular choice of vocation but which sets them in that broader green skills context, which is really important to give people an understanding of how what they're learning can be applied in the workplace. 

So, there is a lot of work of that sort going on, but the key to it is to break down the barriers across the economy and all the relevant contributors and actors to that, so that we can have that shared vision implemented on the ground. 

Minister, I'm grateful for your response to the Member for Alyn and Deeside, who raised a really important issue this afternoon. I am aware that the civil engineering sector are extremely concerned about the lack of suitable skills provision, particularly for groundworkers in Wales. It would appear that there is currently no provision at any of Wales's FE colleges for groundworker apprenticeships, despite, of course, construction being a high-priority sector for skills investment by both the regional skills partnerships and, of course, through Welsh Government funding for apprenticeships that are channelled through the FE sector. There does seem to be a disconnect there between Welsh Government priority skills and delivery through the regional skills partnerships and colleges in Wales. So, Minister, would you be able to look at this as a matter of urgency to make sure that those really important skills in relation to groundworks are not lost here in Wales? 

Yes. The whole point of the regional skills partnerships is to bring in that industry data, isn't it, to the planning that FE colleges are able to make in order to provide. But also, the relationship between FE colleges themselves and the particular sectors in their footprint is absolutely vital to enable them to respond nimbly and in a way that both addresses the needs of the local labour market and gives their learners the best possible range of options. So, I'm very happy to look further into that.

The next question is from—drum roll—John Griffiths.