MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS FOR ASSURANCES THAT WELSH QUALIFICATIONS WILL REMAIN RECOGNISED IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIE

MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS FOR ASSURANCES THAT WELSH QUALIFICATIONS WILL REMAIN RECOGNISED IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Swansea East AM Mike Hedges said after Questions to the Consul General and Minister Responsible for Brexit… ‘I think that the situation is very worrying for we while we are in the European Union, we have a system where qualifications gained in Wales are recognised by employers and Universities and treated as equal to those gained in other countries. There is no guarantees that this will apply post Brexit and we need an end to this uncertainty.

I would have hoped that this close to Brexit we would have had clarity; I have been contacted by constituents who work abroad and who are worried about the situation after 29th March. The lack of a deal at this point in the Brexit process is very worrying. I hope that the situation is resolved quickly and an agreement for equivalence put in place.’

Mike Hedges AM –
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I couldn’t agree more. In fact, most of what I was going to say was on that—that we do need to make sure that people have equivalences, that people can move from country to country in order to carry out skilled work and that the qualifications are treated as equal. That is incredibly important. How is the Welsh Government, working with either the Minister for Education or with the Government in Westminster, going to ensure that occurs? I mean, we can’t be certain we’re going to keep all the geographical food names being protected once we come out of the European Union. We hope it’s going to happen; we can’t guarantee that we’ll keep them. We can’t guarantee we’re going to keep them if we do deals with the United States of America. But the point I’m trying to make is: how can we guarantee our qualifications—City and Guilds qualifications were considered amongst the best in the world by many, many people—are still considered within Europe as equivalences of the European qualifications?137

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Well, at this time, Qualifications Wales is working on a report in relation to this. It will be presented to the Minister for Education, who I know will be making announcements at that point. The publication, I think, of the final report is intended currently to be over the summer. But, in relation to the future arrangements, clearly this is part of the discussions that are ongoing between the Welsh Government and the United Kingdom Government. Clearly, as with many of these things, the fork in the road depends on whether there is a deal or there isn’t a deal. Clearly, in the context of a deal, there’s a framework that may be continued at least in the short term. In a ‘no deal’ scenario, you’re looking at a question of ensuring compliance with the individual member state requirements in relation to qualification recognition, which I’m sure we would all agree is a scenario we want to be able to avoid for the reasons that underlie the Member’s question.