4. What assessment has the Minister made of the role of construction skills as part of an alternative curriculum for school pupils? OQ59261

'Curriculum for Wales' focuses on developing enterprising, creative learners, ready to play a full part in life and work. I strongly support the importance of skills as part of learning and the opportunity for schools and colleges to work together to meet the needs of young people. 

The Minister will know from his visits around Wales that some pupils don't engage with the traditional curriculum and with traditional education. But providing opportunities such as construction skills is a way in to a productive future career, and sometimes quite a lucrative career as well, with skills such as carpentry and bricklaying and plumbing and so on. So, will he join me in welcoming the work that's been done at places such as the Maesteg centre for construction excellence, which has linked with Maesteg comprehensive school to develop those opportunities for young people with level 1 qualifications that could then lead to junior apprenticeships or on to foundation courses in those areas? It's vitally important that we support these, not just in the Llynfi valley, but throughout Wales, because we will need these skills, we will need these young people constructively engaged as they go through school, and, if it isn't the traditional curriculum, then giving these opportunities is a really great way forward. So, how can he give more support to these non-traditional routes to engage with young people? 

Thank you, Huw Irranca-Davies, for that question. I very much welcome schools and institutions like Maesteg comprehensive and Neath Port Talbot College in that example, I think, working together to give that hands-on training in vocational areas like construction. There are other examples in the Swansea Bay City Deal skills and talent project and the Tech Valleys STEM project in Blaenau Gwent as well.

Last year, mindful of the fact that I think there is more that we can and should be doing in this area, I asked Hefin David to undertake a review of how education to employment, if you like, transitions, work in schools, and in colleges as well. Part of that is about learning how children and young people are supported, if you like, in their experience and understanding of the world of work and the kinds of skills that they need in the way that you're describing. So, I hope to be able to say a little bit more about that in the next few weeks, but congratulations to Maesteg and NPTC for the work that they're doing together.

And to build on the point that Huw Irranca-Davies made there: obviously, the construction sector is an incredibly important sector for our economy and for our young people to engage with, as Huw Irranca-Davies correctly identified.

The Construction Industry Training Board have said that over 9,000 extra workers will be required just to meet construction demand in Wales by 2027, so that's quite a lot of people in quite a short space of time. Can I ask, Minister: do you agree with that assessment of those figures required, and what is the plan to get there, because it's a lot of people, as I say, in a very short amount of time? So, how are we going to get those construction workers for the future that we need today?

I work very closely with the Minister for Economy, and our portfolios come together in this particular area. A significant amount of that is to make sure that the vocational qualifications we are offering are able to support the young people to do the jobs of the future. So, whether that's in relation to the vocational qualifications review, which is currently under way, or the investment we've made into personal learning accounts, which can support those at a later point in their learning journey, that's very much the focus of those interventions. I think it's really critical that both through the work that further education colleges do with their local economy, as well as the work of things like the regional skills partnerships, we have a very clear understanding of what the pipeline of skills is that's required, and sometimes that requires us to work in very innovative and much more nimble ways than perhaps we've had to do in the past, and absolutely, that is our priority.

Question 5, Sioned Williams.

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'd like to declare an interest, as my husband is a professor in Swansea University and is a member of the University and College Union.