Praise as companies lead Welsh skills revival

AIRBUS and its parent company EADS are leading the Welsh skills revival with engineering and scientific research excellence and providing new opportunities for the younger generation, First Minister Rhodri Morgan said today.

In the week that the first A380 superjumbo was delivered to Singapore Airlines, he praised the apprenticeship, and graduate training schemes run by Airbus in Broughton and highlighted the important role played by EADS in Newport in employing Welsh graduates for high tech research and development.

The First Minister told a reception at the National Assembly to highlight the work of the Welsh arm of the business:

Airbus is probably the largest private sector employer in Wales. The Broughton site not only employs around 6,000 people, but is estimated to support a further 10,000 jobs indirectly via its supply chain across North Wales.

Airbus UK runs excellent award-winning apprenticeship and graduate training schemes that are raising skill levels throughout the sector. Its engineering apprenticeship scheme is certainly the biggest in Wales with an intake of more than 100 trainees every year – more than the number recruited by all the other North Wales engineering employers together.

I’m particularly impressed with the graduate training scheme which offers the kind of jobs that our brightest and best would once upon a time have had to leave Wales to access. Thanks to Airbus, EADS and a number of other high-tech companies that are now developing scientific research and development facilities here, we now retain far more of those with the highest skills and qualifications in Wales.

EADS also has a strong technology base in Wales and is a major employer in Newport. I’m delighted that as part of EADS Innovation Works programme, a major part of its corporate research capability is located in south east Wales. The team, supported by an international resource pool, are working on a range of high-profile, important ‘front-line’ projects providing secure integrated communications and information assurance across armed forces and in civil defence.

This is an important vote of confidence in the Welsh economy and proves that our workforce has the intelligence and skills to carry out the job. Wales now has at least six global companies which are carrying out research and development or intellectual property development compared with virtually none just five years ago which is a major step forward.

The First Minister said his government was committed to encouraging more high-tech companies to develop in Wales.

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