1. What is the Welsh Government doing to help young people into employment in Clwyd South? OQ59159

Llywydd, the continued buoyancy of the economy in north-east Wales is the single greatest help to young people entering employment in the Member’s constituency. For those further from the labour market, the young person’s guarantee provides a range of assistance to prepare young people for, and place them in, the world of work.

Thank you, First Minister. The young people's guarantee really has been a tremendous success in the year that it's been operating, having found work for 11,000 people across Wales. And the unemployment rate in Wales continues to track below the UK unemployment rate average as well. What can employers do to attract the workforce of the future, alongside, obviously, the range of excellent Welsh Labour Government schemes such as the young people's guarantee?

Well, Llywydd, Welsh Government officials have been engaged recently in a series of meetings with employers in different parts of Wales, including in north Wales. And the story out there, as you know, is no longer a shortage of work, but a shortage of workers. There are 330,000 fewer people in the workforce across the United Kingdom than there were in 2016. And that means that young people in particular are sought after by employers, and the nature of the discussion has been about the sorts of things that young people say to employers that they are looking for. And they're looking for a career path and progression, they're looking for flexibility in the workplace, they're looking for the values that they see an employer bringing—a commitment to fair work, a commitment to climate responsibilities. So, I think there are lessons, very clearly, from young people themselves, about the sorts of things that they will find attractive in a workplace where they are a scarce resource.

The responsibility of Government, Llywydd, comes in making sure that those young people who are not yet ready to enter the workplace get every help that they can through the young person's guarantee, whether that is a place in training, whether it's skill development, whether it's supported placements in the workplace, so that we can make sure that all those young people in Wales, looking to make their contribution to our economy, are fully equipped to do so. 

I'm grateful to Ken Skates for submitting today's important question. I would like to echo the comments made by him, and by you as well, First Minister, in relation to the young person's guarantee, something which, on these sides of the benches, we have been supporting. Of course, as you outlined, it's that offer there for everyone under the age of 25—the offer of work, education, training or self-employment. And, last week, First Minister, I had the privilege of joining the vice-chancellor and her team at Wrexham Glyndŵr University to hear about all the good work taking place in the business school in particular at the university, and to hear about their relationship with industry, and with businesses in Wrexham and Clwyd South, and in north Wales as a region. So, First Minister, will you join me in recognising the importance of that relationship between higher education and business and industries in north Wales, and in Wales as a whole, and how do you think that that important relationship can be built on to ensure that young people have the opportunity for employment in my region of north Wales? 

Well, Llywydd, I thank Sam Rowlands for that and absolutely agree with the point he's making, and not just higher education, but further education as well, and north Wales is particularly blessed, I think, in the quality of further education that is provided to young people in those regions. 

We know that the experience of the pandemic means that even young people who have attended higher education have a sense of needing to build confidence back in order to be in the workplace. And it is interesting that a number of the schemes that run under the remit of the youth guarantee are actually taking young people who have graduated already under their wing in order to give them that start. And the relationship between the providers of further and higher education and the world of work, I think, is fundamentally important in making sure that those young people who need just that extra step on their journey early on, to make up for some of the experiences that they will have had to navigate over recent times, that that extra help is available to them, and supported from both sides.