Why are progression rates for Advanced Apprentices so low? Previous research points to a range of supply-side and demand-side barriers. Fundamentally, many employers do not exhibit the sort of demand for higher-level skills that could be used to justify the level of investment required. And, in some cases, employers just don't realise their…

John Hayes, Conservative Shadow Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, is unstinting in his enthusiasm for what adult learning, in all its forms, can achieve. Adult learning has many virtues, he enthuses, not all of them economic. Learning for its own sake is "a noble purpose" while education can help build "a cohesive…

The "Programme for Government" is the Welsh Government's plan of action for this term of the Assembly. At the forefront of the programme is growth and sustainable jobs. As a small economy, still recovering from the decline of manufacturing and the coal industry, Wales' economic and social outcomes are inextricably linked. Certainly, the…