Minister hails importance of apprentices

The success of Welsh apprentices and Coleg Sir Gâr in international skills competitions have been hailed by the Deputy Minister for Skills, Jeff Cuthbert.

Speaking on the 19th September at an apprenticeship celebration at Coleg Sir Gâr’s Graig campus, Mr Cuthbert said highly skilled and qualified apprentices were vital to making Welsh business more competitive and helping the economy grow and he praised the work of Coleg Sir Gâr for raising the profile of vocational and skills training through their successes at the WorldSkills event.

David Bowen, an IT student at Coleg Sir Gâr, is the only Welsh person selected to compete for the UK team at WorldSkills London 2011. David, 18 from Llandysul, will compete against others from all over the world in web design.

Coleg Sir Gâr has been a big supporter of the WorldSkills events and produced many competitors in the past.

“Coleg Sir Gâr should be proud that year-on-year they are producing WorldSkills stars,” he said.

“As David is about to experience, WorldSkills is a wonderful opportunity for the most highly skilled young people to prove their expertise on an international stage.

These competitions help raise awareness of the importance of skills both nationally and internationally and help to inspire others.”

Mr Cuthbert congratulated David and praised the efforts that go on in the background by trainers, lecturers and employers to support competitors like David.

Speaking later at the celebration of the Welsh Government’s Pathway to Apprenticeships scheme, Mr Cuthbert outlined the Welsh Government’s commitment to increasing apprenticeships in Wales.

“I believe employers need to use apprenticeships as the key mechanism to make their business more competitive,” he said.

Highly skilled and qualified apprentices increase the attractiveness of Wales as a place for employers to ‘do’ business.

To help achieve this, the development of apprenticeship programmes in Wales must complement our other educational policies and drive to ensure a literate and numerate workforce.”

Mr Cuthbert explained how the Welsh Government was working to achieve this.

“As a Government we are committed to making Wales a place where lifelong learning opportunities are something that everyone has access to,” he said.

“We have improved apprenticeship success rates – more than 75% of learners have achieved a full apprenticeship certificate. We have developed new and groundbreaking approaches to meet both the needs of employers and the aspirations of apprentices, whatever their age.

And in response to the economic downturn the Pathways to Apprenticeship programme was developed to provide employers with a pool of well skilled and motivated individuals.

My vision is that apprenticeships, underpinned by high quality qualifications and the wider curricula, become the ‘gold standard’ for vocational competence in Wales.”