5. What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Economy regarding how the education system can help to address Wales's skills gap? OQ59084

Discussions with the Minister for Economy have principally focused on how the education system supports the skills agenda and the young person's guarantee. Also just this week, Cabinet discussed the question of net-zero skills, including the role of education in achieving our ambitions in that important area. 

Thank you for your response, Minister. 

Recent work from the Construction Industry Training Board has shown that, over the next five years, Wales needs 9,100 additional new entrants into construction, with bricklaying, electrical roles and roofing being areas of particular high demand. With the draft budget, there is a chance here to build on how the education system supports people into these industries, but, as I referenced yesterday, conversations I've had with the sector highlight the challenges learners face during their education that may undermine their progress to a career in the industry. More often than not, these challenges lie within the ability of low-income students to fund their education, and what colleges are seeing is students leaving education to access more readily accessible jobs that pay higher wages initially, but don't ultimately fulfil the long-term needs of our communities. Retention will be key to ending those skills shortages. So, how does the Minister envisage addressing these very specific challenges, and does he think that increasing the educational maintenance allowance offers a potential solution? 

I look forward to the debate that we're going to have in the forthcoming weeks in relation to education maintenance allowance, in particular. He will know from my previous appearances at these questions and in the discussions we've had that the real pressure on budgets has meant that we've not been able to increase education maintenance allowance, but we are very happy to have been able to maintain it, which hasn't been the case across other parts of the UK, as he will know. I have also been very pleased to be able to increase the funding available to further education colleges in relation to the financial contingency fund, which, as he knows, is available to support students in further education who are facing particular pressures. I think it's very important that we do everything we can to support students in that position in the way that I know that he does as well. He will also recall that we have, over the last couple of years, sharply increased the funding available to further education colleges in order to be able to offer that broader range of skills that he sets out in his question, and which I agree with him are very, very important. 

Minister, it is tough to imagine what the workplace of tomorrow will be like. If someone had said this time last year that artificial intelligence would pass the interview for a level 3 programme engineer at Google, we would have thought them crazy, but that is exactly what ChatGPT did just a few days ago. The swift rise of artificial intelligence brings a whole new set of challenges for the future job market. However, it also brings a whole set of new opportunities for today’s learners. Minister, how will the education system adapt to ensure young people can embrace these new and emerging technologies and be prepared for whatever tomorrow throws at them? Thank you.

Altaf Hussain makes a very important point in relation to the changing nature of our economy and how difficult it can be sometimes to anticipate those changes. What that tells me is that we need to make sure our young people are equipped for any change in society, and that what we need to be imparting to them, as much as knowledge, are the skills and the experiences to be able to navigate a changing economy in a way that puts their interests at its heart and enables them to flourish.

I think he's right to highlight that there's a particular set of opportunities, and challenges also, in relation to the digital transformation of our society, and AI is one of those examples. He'll know that at the heart of our new curriculum is a set of digital competencies that are cross-cutting. He'll also know of the significant investment that we've made as a Government in recent years to ensure a very, very widespread level of access to computers, laptops, tablets and other devices, and the broadband connectivity that supports that. The challenge now is to make sure that, in our schools, the full functionality that that offers is able to be taken advantage of, and we are working with our profession to ensure that that is the case.

Good afternoon, Minister. I want to ask about personal learning accounts. These were developed by Kirsty Williams in the fifth Senedd to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to learn here in Wales. May I ask for an update on these? How are you working collaboratively with the Minister for Economy to ensure that young people here in Wales do develop the skills that they need, particularly for the green economy? Thank you very much.

Well, I thank Jane Dodds for that question. The accounts are something that I'm a great fan of personally, and I've increased the budget for them substantially. It is important that we continue to provide opportunities whereby people in work can renew and transform their skills. Two of the areas where we've focused funding on are digital skills, as Altaf Hussain mentioned, and also green skills. As we look at increasing the budget for PLAs, one of the greatest priorities is to ensure that we reflect the needs of the economy. So, discussions with the Minister for Economy are certainly moving in that direction.

In this financial year, I allocated almost £18 million for the PLA programme, and what we have seen happening—and this has happened during COVID too—is that we've been able to provide funding and then ensure that we support people in accessing new skills in a very short period of time. The ability to move quickly is so important in a changing economy.