Wales already has a high-quality apprenticeship system. It delivers strong outcomes, supports employers, gives people practical routes into work, and helps young people and adults gain the skills and experience they need to progress. We see Welsh talent succeeding on the WorldSkills stage, and we see every day how apprenticeships can support productivity, confidence and opportunity across the economy.
Yet apprenticeships are still too often treated as peripheral to the wider tertiary education system, rather than as one of its core pillars. That has to change.
As Strategic Director of the National Training Federation for Wales, my role is to advocate for apprenticeships and for the providers who deliver learning in the workplace across Wales. Our members work with thousands of employers, from small businesses to large multinationals, as well as public sector organisations, local authorities and charities. They see directly what apprenticeships can do for learners, employers and communities.
The new Welsh Government should now position apprenticeships with equal status alongside further education, higher education and other parts of the tertiary model. Learners and parents should be able to see clear routes into vocational learning, academic study, apprenticeships and employment, without one being seen as a lesser option than another.
That visibility has to begin early. Too many people still reach post-16 education with learning poverty already embedded. Early intervention is essential, because what is not addressed before 16 often reappears later for colleges, training providers, employers and universities to manage. We need stronger transition pathways into post-16 learning, with clearer information about the opportunities available and how different routes can lead to different careers.
That is where a national skills audit and skills strategy can be valuable. Wales needs a system in which schools, further education, apprenticeships and higher education work together, rather than being seen as separate routes competing for attention. For a learner and their family, the system should show where their opportunities could lead, whether that is through vocational learning, an academic pathway, an apprenticeship, employment, or a combination of those over time.
The Curriculum for Wales was intended to help broaden that sense of opportunity, but it has been a slow burner and has not yet fully achieved what many hoped it would. There is now an opportunity to make better use of new 14-plus qualifications, micro-credentials and emerging areas such as AI to help young people engage earlier and see learning as relevant to their future. Young people are often embracing these technologies more quickly than older generations, and we should use that as a tool to support learning, confidence and progression.
Apprenticeships also have a crucial role in supporting learning at every age. One of the strengths of the Welsh system is the all-age apprenticeship opportunity. This is not only about young people entering the workforce for the first time, although that remains vital. It is also about adults who need to upskill, reskill or switch careers because their sector has changed, their job has disappeared, or new opportunities are emerging.
We saw this in the context of Tata Steel in Port Talbot, where people affected by major industrial change needed routes to retrain and gain new qualifications. Similar pressures are felt across Wales when people find themselves displaced from one sector but capable of contributing in another. Apprenticeships can provide that structured route back into skilled employment.
For employers, apprenticeships are a proven way of developing talent and meeting workforce needs. They allow people to earn, learn and build experience in a real workplace. They help businesses grow their own skills base and create routes into sectors where recruitment is already difficult.
The problem is not demand. The demand is there. The challenge is the funding instability that makes it harder to plan, grow capacity and respond to what learners and employers need.
For the apprenticeship network, multi-year funding certainty is essential. Year after year, providers are left having to defend and protect provision rather than plan confidently for growth. Rising delivery costs, pressure on capacity and short-term funding streams all make it harder to build the system Wales needs.
We have seen too many short-term approaches over recent years, from European funding to replacement funds and local growth programmes. The names change, the structures change, and providers are expected to keep adapting. What Wales needs now is long-term sustainable funding that allows apprenticeship delivery to support learners, employers and the wider economy with stability and purpose.
Government also needs to look again at priority areas. Funding decisions must reflect where growth is happening and where growth can be created. If priority lists are too narrow or outdated, they risk holding back enterprise, business start-ups and emerging opportunities. A system designed to support the economy should not unintentionally restrict the very sectors it needs to help.
The next phase of tertiary education in Wales should be practical, visible and evidence-led. It should strengthen transitions into post-16 learning, reaffirm the strategic importance of apprenticeships, support all-age learning and give providers the funding stability to plan ahead.
