Welsh Conservative Shadow Secretary for Skills, Mohammad Asghar AM, has criticised the Welsh Labour-led Government’s engagement with businesses following a report on the apprenticeship levy by the National Assembly’s Economy, Infrastructure and Skills committee.
Around 700 Welsh employers will be affected when the UK-wide levy is introduced on 6 April and the committee has described the Welsh Government’s engagement as “patchy” leaving employers confused.
Commenting on the report, Mr Asghar said:
“Today’s report points out the significant failure by the Welsh Government to engage with businesses across Wales on the impact of the apprenticeship levy, which in anyone’s book is an alarming dereliction of duty.
“The failure to engage in a constructive fashion with the lifeblood of our economy endangers the very intention of the policy – to reinvest into improved apprenticeship training.
“The funding deal agreed by the UK Conservative Government and Welsh Government provides Wales with around £130m in the first year alone and should have put funding on a more sustainable footing so more and better quality apprenticeships could be created.
“However, this has been placed at risk due to the Welsh Government’s lax attitude to engagement and implementation of this levy posing the real threat that jobs end up being taken out of Wales.”
