23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
Okay. My last question was really about this clear progression route from lower level to high-level apprenticeships, but social care would be a good example, would it not, of how we need to ensure that we have a skill mix of individuals working in social care?
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
So, what action has been taken to ensure that those health boards that have a much more localised focus on employing local skills are giving people a career pathway from a low base of qualifications?
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
Medr mentioned that some of the social care apprenticeships haven't been successful in getting people placed. That's a really serious issue, given the way it's playing out.
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
Okay. Grant Santos, you wanted to come back in.
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
So, what are these incentives for employers that you envisage? For those who don't realise that they either change or die, what is it that's going to bring these people to the table?
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
Okay. So, you mention in your paper the challenge of getting employers to engage and take on apprenticeships, but that the evidence is that staff retention rates are much better when you've got employees in apprenticeship programmes, because they can see…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
Okay. So, Lisa, how do we speed up without all these different organisations collapsing under the stress of constant change, which is nevertheless required?
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
Clearly, there's a role for Estyn, and, indeed, school governors on that. But how is that great local initiative going to get—? Will it survive the upheaval of all these 23 frameworks?
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 2 - Colegau a Darparwyr Prentisiaethau
Thank you. In the policy statement that the Government issued last February, they said that there are too few apprenticeships in areas of skills shortages that are acute, for example, information technology and digital, renewables, decarbonisation and…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
That's very long term.
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Well, ensuring that small businesses know where to go and what's the time commitment to upskill.
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
So, what's the outcome? When are you going to get some outcomes on this? Because these are really significant issues.
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Obviously you can't have thousands of meetings that are not relevant, it's really how are you going to say, 'These are the opportunities of the future. Do you know about x, y, z that is going to enable you to adapt your electrical or plumbing skills to fit…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
You mentioned that SMEs are not good at workforce planning. Let's just take a specific, which is the retrofitting of everybody's homes. The construction industry in the housing sector is run by lots and lots of small companies, so what is your strategy for…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Looking at specifics, how much are you engaged with some of the strategic potential employers in areas like offshore and floating wind, onshore wind, construction? How do you know where the gaps are in the skills base that they’re going to need to pull in…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
I thought—
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Okay.
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Okay. I should have said, 'After year 11'. There's great work going on—exemplary examples, like ColegauCymru, like Bridgend College, which a lot of my constituents attend. But how do we join up the dots, to ensure that whatever skills have been obtained in…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Fair enough. Okay. Fair enough.
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Okay. We could have a whole session on all that, but, just focusing on the pathways into the appropriate skills people need to get decent work, work experience in schools—. Disabled people aren't even considered, in many cases, for work experience; they're…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Okay, so that's your role, is it? Let me just perhaps explain that I chair the Equality and Social Justice Committee and we've taken a lot of evidence in relation to disability and employment. We haven't yet reported, so there aren't any recommendations there…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
So—. There's a lot of cooks in constructing this broth. But, looking at it from the perspective of the learner, how do you engage all those who are in, if you like—? There are all the schools and colleges, who need to ensure that every learner has a pathway…
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Okay, I understand that. I assume that somebody—. It's known which these five are, is it?
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Five local authorities.
23 Ionawr 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Llwybrau prentisiaeth - Panel 1 - Trosolwg Strategol
Okay. Why only five areas, when there must be people who are in danger of falling out of the system altogether in all parts of Wales? When you say 'local areas', are we talking local authorities?
