Medr’s First Year: One Tertiary System, a Lifetime of Opportunities 

More than £1 billion invested in tertiary education and research, supporting over 320,000 learners across Wales. Medr’s first full-year Annual Report demonstrates the scale of its responsibilities and the progress made in bringing our education and skills system together. 

There is much to welcome, particularly the work on collaboration, learner engagement and a common regulatory framework. Bringing these different parts of education together is a significant undertaking. 

But establishing a more connected system is only part of the task. What matters now is what that system enables people to achieve. 

Wales faces some difficult choices about its future skills needs. Artificial intelligence (AI), technological change, economic pressures and demographic shifts are changing the demands placed on our workforce. The idea that education prepares us for an entire working life belongs firmly in the past. 

The Skills Audit for Wales, being undertaken by the Learning and Work Institute, is therefore particularly timely. Understanding the skills Wales needs now and in the future is essential. But identifying those needs is only half the challenge. We must also have the capacity, investment and flexibility to respond. 

And that means looking well beyond young people entering education and employment. 

Much of the workforce Wales will depend upon over the coming decades is already in employment. Others are seeking work, changing careers or returning to learning after years away. We cannot afford to overlook their existing skills, experience or potential. 

At Adult Learning Wales, we see this through our work as Wales’s national further education provider of adult learning and skills, delivering in communities, workplaces and online. Our provision ranges from essential skills and independent living to professional qualifications, workplace development and progression into further study. 

We also know that wanting to learn and being able to access learning are two very different things. Employment, caring responsibilities, transport, finances and confidence can all influence whether someone can take up an opportunity. 

A genuinely connected tertiary system should make it easier for people to access learning, have their existing skills recognised and move between different forms of education and training. It must be responsive to employers and the economy, while recognising the equally important contribution learning makes to health, wellbeing, independence and community life. 

This is where the next phase of tertiary reform can make a real difference. We need to look beyond how effectively our institutions work together and consider whether more people can access the opportunities they need, when and where they need them. 

Medr’s first full year has established important foundations. The next measure of success must be the difference those foundations make to participation, progression and opportunity across Wales. 

Our ambition should be a tertiary education system that serves people throughout their lives, not simply at the beginning of their working lives. 

Tertiary must mean tertiary for all!