Stronger, fairer, greener Wales: a plan for employability and skills: summary

Welsh Government is committed to creating a Wales where individuals of all ages can receive a high quality education, with jobs for all, where businesses can thrive in a net zero economy that champions fairness and equality.

The Programme for Government (PfG) set out the actions we will pursue over this Senedd term to ensure nobody is left behind, nobody held back, through a shared commitment to ensure everyone reaches their potential.  

The Plan for Employability and Skills seeks to signal clear policy and investment priorities, sharpen our delivery focus and the activity of partners, on actions over this Government term that will leave a positive legacy for future generations.

• Young people realising their potential.
• Tackling economic inequality.
• Championing Fair Work for all.
• Supporting people with a long term health condition to work.
• Nurturing a learning for life culture.

Future Generations

Invest in and strengthen the whole system approach to delivering the Young Persons Guarantee to make it easy for everyone under the age of 25 to access an offer of work, education, training, or self-employment. This offer includes the young people who will benefit from 125,000 new Apprenticeships to give people of all ages high quality routes into better jobs.

Tackling economic inequality

Prioritise and consolidate Welsh Government led, national employability support to ensure sure no one is left behind. Targeting those under-represented in the labour market, those in and out of work with long term health conditions, to find work and progress in employment. Whilst strengthening joint working with DWP to optimise national provision to meet the needs of priority groups.

Fair Work for All

Support and encourage employers to create high quality employment, improve the offer to workers, champion fair employment practices, ensure the social value of investment and encourage the public sector to embed the priorities in workforce planning.

Healthy Work, Healthy Wales

Support people with a long term health condition to work by preventing people falling out of employment through health prevention, early intervention, healthy workplaces and maximise role of the health service as an anchor employer.

Learning for Life

Ensure educational inequalities narrow and standards rise, participation in the skills system is widened for disabled people and ethnic minority groups, whilst tackling low qualifications and increasing the mobility workers.

• Promoting collective responsibility for advancing Fair Work for All,  through the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill, whole system approach to the Young Persons Guarantee, establishing the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (CTER), strengthening social value of Welsh Government and Health and Social Care investment, and progressing a placed-based approach to economic development.
• Prioritising and consolidating Welsh Government led, national employability support to target young people, those under-represented in the labour market and  those in and out of work with long term health conditions to find work and progress in employment.
• Expanding support for career switchers and older workers through mid-Career Reviews, and Personal Learning Accounts to support workers to upskill or reskill to access a wider range of job opportunities.
• Pursuing a strengthened Concordat with the Department for Work and Pensions to improve early engagement and joint planning in Wales to ensure that together we best meet the needs of priority and disadvantaged groups.
• Championing Fair work to improve the offer for workers, particularly in areas of staff shortages to encourage employers to draw on a more diverse talent pool, by increasing workforce diversity, improving pay and conditions, and flexible working conditions.
• Strengthening the core role of Local Health Boards in prevention and early intervention, through social prescribing, and increased employability, vocational rehabilitation and multi-professional occupational health services for people in and out of work with mental ill-health and long term health conditions.

We published the first set of National Milestones in December 2021, to set out our longer term goals to accelerate progress and drive a collective response across all public bodies subject to the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.

The milestones that will underpin our approach are:

• 75% of working age adults in Wales will be qualified to Level 3 or higher by 2050
• the percentage of working age adults with no qualifications will be 5% or below in every local authority in Wales by 2050
• at least 90% of 16 to 24 year olds will be in education, employment, or training by 2050
• eradicate the gap between the employment rate in Wales and the UK by 2050, with a focus on fair work and raising labour market participation of under-represented groups
• an elimination of the pay gap for gender, disability and ethnicity by 2050

The national indicators of relevance to this Plan are:

• number 8: percentage of adults with qualifications at the different levels of the National Qualifications Framework
• number 16: percentage of people in employment, who are on permanent contracts (or on temporary contracts, and not seeking permanent employment) and who earn at least the Real Living Wage
• number 17: pay difference for gender, disability and ethnicity
• number 20: proportion of employees whose pay is set by collective bargaining
• number 21: percentage of people in employment
• number 22: percentage of people in education, employment or training, measured for different age groups

The Technical Annex sets out the current trajectory, areas to accelerate progress, and monitoring and reporting arrangements for our Plan for Employability and Skills.