, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
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?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
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?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
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.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
Okay. Grant Santos, you wanted to come back in.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
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?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
Okay. So, Lisa, how do we speed up without all these different organisations collapsing under the stress of constant change, which is nevertheless required?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
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?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 2 - Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
That's very long term.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
Well, ensuring that small businesses know where to go and what's the time commitment to upskill.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
So, what's the outcome? When are you going to get some outcomes on this? Because these are really significant issues.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
I thought—
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
Okay.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
Fair enough. Okay. Fair enough.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
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…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
Okay, I understand that. I assume that somebody—. It's known which these five are, is it?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
Five local authorities.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Apprenticeship pathways - Panel 1 - Strategic Overview
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?
