, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language: Vocational qualifications
I thank Vikki Howells for those two very important points. I think that, at the heart of the way in which we need to deliver the made-for-Wales qualifications is to ensure that the balance between assessed content and practical content is striking the right…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language: Vocational qualifications
I thank Heledd Fychan for those questions. There is work already in train in terms of the post-16 curriculum, as I broadly mentioned in my statement, and part of that is the establishment of statutory guidance for providers, so that that curriculum follows…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language: Vocational qualifications
I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for her questions, although I think the questions really relate to the statement that Qualifications Wales made last week about the introduction of VCSEs, rather than the statement I'm making today in relation to the response to…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language: Vocational qualifications
The review recommended extending work opportunity options to all level 3 learners who didn’t have a work placement as a mandatory part of their qualification. I will accept this recommendation, as all level 3 learners now have opportunities to access work…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language: Vocational qualifications
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. This Government has made a commitment to increase parity of esteem between vocational and academic education routes. We believe in the inherent value of vocational education, with its crucial links to skills, the economy and to Welsh…
, Plenary
Debate: The Welsh Language Commissioner’s Annual Report 2022-23
Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you all for your contributions. More than one Member has asked me to comment on the amendment, so just to say that I agree that it's a contemptuous attitude taken by HSBC, and I agree entirely with the words of Siân Gwenllian on…
, Plenary
Debate: The Welsh Language Commissioner’s Annual Report 2022-23
Thank you, Llywydd. It's a pleasure to open this debate today and to ask you to note the Welsh Language Commissioner's annual report for the financial year 2022-23. The report takes us on a journey through the varied work of the commissioner over the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Thank you, Cadeirydd. Diolch yn fawr.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Well, the explanatory memorandum does mention more than one potential way of dealing with this—the statutory elements too, kitemark elements and so on. Any licensing agreement, of course, is something complex, and you need very careful consideration of the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
I think that the challenge is one that comes before that. That is to say, I don't think that it's a lack of demand for the service that's the specific challenge; I think that it's the lack of availability of staff that's the challenge. So, I understand why…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Of course, I agree, if this sort of provision is going to come forward through this type of legislation, that a requirement in the Bill for that to be available through the medium of Welsh is vital and is essential. Our understanding at the moment is that the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Well, I might ask Lloyd just to come in, in a moment, about the existing provision in the curriculum that supports this, but I absolutely do take the point that you're making about the particular benefits of outdoor learning to pupils in settings other than…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Yes, certainly. Well, the Bill doesn't do this, because it amends a part of the 2021 Act that isn't itself applicable to PRUs and young people educated other than at school. And it's intentional in doing that, and I understand the reason why it's doing that…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Well, I think you make a very important point, and I'm mindful of two things. One is the committee's recent inquiry, which told us some very valuable things about the accessibility of education. And the other point, which I think was made on Monday in the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Well, to your first point: does the legislation resolve those questions around anxiety—and uncertainty, I think you said? I don't think it does, but, in all candour, I don't think it could. Legislation can't do that in practice. I think that addressing…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Well, I suppose the point I would make is that the Bill seeks to protect that uniquely. So, at the moment, as you will know from our previous discussions, the approach that I have taken in my budget to the grants that go to schools to support a range of…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
This is at the heart of my concerns, in many ways. We had a discussion last week about the pressures on school budgets, the pressures on the Welsh Government's budget, and the very real pressure on council budgets, and what this Bill does is effectively…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
If that scheme were required, that monitoring and that reporting, then I think that would be burdensome, and the broader point I'm making to you is that that wouldn't be consistent with the level of obligation we have in other parts of the curriculum…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Well, there would need to be—. If the Welsh Government was to collect data on pupils who had been offered—at least offered—residential outdoor education, that would require us to bring in or amend existing regulations, so there would need to be a new power to…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Well, the section 42 provides for that already, so I think that mechanism is there in the legislation. What is not clear, I think, is what the—. If it's a mandatory part of the curriculum, which it's required to be, and that section 42 mechanism hasn't been…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Thank you. Certainly. Well, this is one of the practical challenges. What the guidance says can't change what the Bill does. So, the starting point for, 'What is the legal obligation, the legal duties, the legal rights?' if you like, is what is in the Bill…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Yes. So, my concerns around what is mandatory are related to the job of guidance. The job of guidance is to give advice rather than introduce mandatory elements to a scheme that otherwise the Bill doesn't make mandatory. So, if you're going to have mandatory…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
There are different aspects to this. So, the design of the curriculum is a responsibility of the headteacher and the governing body. So, including residential outdoor education in the curriculum would be an obligation that they would need to fulfil as part of…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
Certainly. Well, I'm not going to repeat what I said earlier in the week, but I'll just make specific points on this, if I may, which are the main points, I think, from the point of view of concerns around the legislation. Firstly, the Bill isn't clear on…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 8
—what schools would think, what decisions schools would make in relation to a particular part of the curriculum that is specified in the legislation. So, at the moment, schools are designing curricula that have a requirement to deliver outdoor learning in a…
