There has been a 10 year plan in place since 2012 to reform the VET system in Wales to bring it more into line with the system in other European countries. In particular there is now a formal distinction between IVET and CVET and comparable levels of attainment.

The prevocational sector in Wales is characterised by a multiplicity of providers and a multitude of provision.

Many of the mainstream government organised schemes are less successful than private /NGO schemes, which are often more creative, better funded and more focussed on the needs of a particular group – but many of these are not scalable.

There are widespread complaints by young people about many of the job seeking courses or pre-employment programmes claiming that they are low level and perceived as patronising and boring. Many young people only attend so that they do not lose their state benefits.

Jobs Growth Wales has achieved a major success in getting 10,000 young people into jobs but many of the jobs are low paid and low- skilled with high turn over rates.

The skills to use technology for learning and the digital skills and awareness with which young people leave general education or IVET will vary hugely and will depend on the school or college they attended, the course they undertook and even the teachers in post.

There does not appear to be a demand for e-portfolios from employers nor is there any move to look at digital artefacts as part of the recruitment process, other than a steady growth in interview presentations and the need to be able to use presentation software.

There is enthusiasm and a very positive steer from government to widen access, develop digital skills and make creative use of technology across the education system. Failure to achieve this is often because of blockages put up by organisations and institutions at different levels of the delivery infrastructure such as civil servants, local government departments, local education authorities, college management, IT admin departments and so on.

Staff training for teachers /trainers in the use of technology for learning and teaching is happening and having a clear impact. However, it is not happening fast enough or on a large enough scale.

Young entrepreneurs are an overlooked group outside the university and voluntary sector in terms of financial support, relevant advice and targeted guidance. We need novel ways of engaging young people with the idea of self-employment and more imaginative ways of supporting them.