In light of the announcement made by the Minister for Economy and Transport in respect of the procurement of the Jobs Support Wales contract, Dafydd Evans, Chair of the CollegesWales Principals’ Forum said,
"Responding on behalf of the FE sector, ColegauCymru would now ask the Welsh Government to take sufficient time to reflect on its recent decision to suspend the procurement process for Employability Support in Wales. The sector understands that this is a difficult decision to have had to take and as a result, we believe that it should pause the development of future procurement exercises in the field of employability and skills so as to learn the lessons from the two failed attempts to contract services for employability support."
Reflecting on the statement, Iestyn Davies, CEO of ColegauCymru added,
"Through the existing programmes, Colleges and training providers have worked well with Welsh Government to support individuals who are often overlooked and furthest from training and employment. We recognise that it is the Welsh Government’s intention to ensure that this can continue and would value an opportunity to discuss how this can happen going forward. At this point, we believe that this can be best achieved by placing existing programmes on a sure footing and working collaboratively to introduce new programmes when the time is right."
