I'm grateful to you, Presiding Officer.

6. Will the Minister make a statement on future financial support for higher and further education students? OQ60518

Statutory student support remains available to eligible students commencing higher education in the academic year 2024-25. For younger learners in further education, we are maintaining our education maintenance allowance scheme at £40 per week and, for those over 19, our Welsh Government learning grant further education scheme at £1,500 a year.

I'm grateful to the Minister for that response and, of course, it is fundamental to people's ability to partake in education and post-16 education that there is financial support available for them, and that goes to the heart of making education available as a real choice for everybody, including the poorest and most vulnerable students in the country. Will the Minister make a commitment this afternoon that he will continue to ensure that this area is protected, that the level of the EMA, which he has protected, will continue to be protected, and that future financial support will continue to be available for students to enable everybody, not just the richest, but the poorest people, to benefit from education?

Yes, we're very pleased to have been able to increase the education maintenance allowance, and as he will know, I don't need to remind him, in other parts of the UK, Conservative England have abolished that a long time ago. So, I think it's a very important way in which we can remove that extra pressure on students after the age of 16. We were hearing very clearly from people that people were making the choice not to go on to college or stay on at college because they couldn't afford to do that. So, I'm very proud that we've been able to do that, and we will maintain that.

I mentioned earlier a number of other ways in which we have been supporting students in my answer to Huw Irranca-Davies, and alongside EMA, of course, we have the financial contingency fund, which colleges draw on to be able to provide that extra support to learners who need some financial support. It's really important, as he says, that we make a reality of that promise that we made to young people that cost shouldn't be a barrier to study, and shouldn't be a barrier to success, and it's one of many ways in which we've been able to do that through the education budget.

Minister, financial support for higher and further education students is not only vital, but is also an important tool to incentivise students to undertake studies that benefit the nation. For example, the bursaries provided to those studying a career in medicine can encourage students to enter the field. Minister, have you discussed with Cabinet colleagues the possibility of paying the tuition fees of all students who commit to serve in the Welsh NHS for a minimum of five years?

Well, as the Member will know, we already provide particular support for students who commit to serve in the NHS. We would always look at ways in which a joined-up approach across the Welsh Government's budget is able to meet our common ambitions, and I think the experience that we've had over the last few months of looking at very difficult budget choices has, I think, enabled Ministers to look very closely at that sense of 'one public sector, one public service', where funding in one area can support activity in another, and I think that is a very good way of proceeding.