I was hardly surprised to see that Leanne Wood was unimpressed with the comments of Cardiff University Professor, Patrick Minford in today's Western Mail.
It's all very well saying that those who are claiming should be "more flexible", but sometimes, there just aren't jobs available.
To take the Rhondda as an example, in mid-September there were 270 live vacancies at the local Jobcentre Plus but 1,580 claimants - that's 1 job for every 5 claimants.
How about Clwyd South where there's 168 jobs for 990 claimants? That's the same ratio.
Ynys Mon's pretty much the same - 269 live unfilled vacancies for 1,172 claimants. Almost the same.
Wales needs to develop an entrenepeurial, improved work-based culture that treats people well, looks after them, nurtures their talents and gets them to contribute to the society in which we live.
This can only be achieved by valuing people, not writing them off and dismissing them.
As we suffer through a downturn not of our making, we must inspire Welsh based industries to grow in their communities, and then, through job creation and fair redistribution, we will get the fairer society that we are working towards.
Showing posts with label Western Mail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Western Mail. Show all posts
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Welsh education 'must do better'
As education is one of the portfolios devolved to Cardiff, it isn't an issue with which I deal on a daily basis - meaning that often my major interaction with the Welsh education system is Thursday's Education supplement in the Western Mail (Thursday's not just for the jobs section, you know!).
Today's section was more interesting than usual, coinciding with the start of the new school year. Jane Hutt's regular column focused on the development of the Foundation Phase of school, an excellent idea, but I hope that teaching unions' concerns about funding are unfounded, while, elsewhere, Fforwm, the group that represents Futher Education providers, laid out their funding needs for the coming years, although I must admit to being a little concerned at the £200m capital infrastructure investment apparently needed, of which they are currently asking for £50m.
The most interesting article, though, was a rather damning piece by Exeter University's David Reynolds, focusing on a comparative decline in GCSE passes against England. Reynolds blames this on the need for different priorities in Wales compared to England, which did not need to undertake the administrative re-organisation or consider the needs for Welsh language teaching, noting that education spending since the Assembly's inception rose by less than other major departments. He also suggests that the Welsh education system has been less able to innovate and expresses concern about the ability of Local Education Authorities to adequately supply the education needed.
Bizarrely, though, these very valid concerns and criticisms are then held up as being a possible failure of devolution. Like any institution it is the policy's undertaken that have most impact, not the powers available. Different policies would have produced different results. Rather than suggesting that it is the failure of the institution, Reynolds should be holding to account the people in power during this period - and that was the Labour Party.
Today's section was more interesting than usual, coinciding with the start of the new school year. Jane Hutt's regular column focused on the development of the Foundation Phase of school, an excellent idea, but I hope that teaching unions' concerns about funding are unfounded, while, elsewhere, Fforwm, the group that represents Futher Education providers, laid out their funding needs for the coming years, although I must admit to being a little concerned at the £200m capital infrastructure investment apparently needed, of which they are currently asking for £50m.
The most interesting article, though, was a rather damning piece by Exeter University's David Reynolds, focusing on a comparative decline in GCSE passes against England. Reynolds blames this on the need for different priorities in Wales compared to England, which did not need to undertake the administrative re-organisation or consider the needs for Welsh language teaching, noting that education spending since the Assembly's inception rose by less than other major departments. He also suggests that the Welsh education system has been less able to innovate and expresses concern about the ability of Local Education Authorities to adequately supply the education needed.
Bizarrely, though, these very valid concerns and criticisms are then held up as being a possible failure of devolution. Like any institution it is the policy's undertaken that have most impact, not the powers available. Different policies would have produced different results. Rather than suggesting that it is the failure of the institution, Reynolds should be holding to account the people in power during this period - and that was the Labour Party.
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