To ask the Minister for the Economy for her assessment of the support available to train and upskill 18-to-22-year-olds living with a disability into the workplace.

Dr Archibald

Getting young people with a disability into a good job is a critical part of my economic vision. The loss of European social fund (ESF) funding has had a significant impact and has significantly reduced the skills and training support available to disabled people. Despite that, we continue to work closely with the Department for Communities, which is the lead Department on disability, including the disability and work strategy. My Department makes an important contribution through a range of programmes and services, which include such programmes as SKILL UP, Step Up and Skills for Life and Work. The apprenticeships programme also provides additional support to assist disabled people with their off-the-job training. There is also the Breaking Barriers programme, which specifically targets those who are disabled or neurodivergent and are over the age of 18. Finally, I expect to receive a report from my officials soon on the work that they have been doing on provision for young people with special educational needs.

Dr Archibald

That is a really important aspect. We talk a lot about having programmes in place to support individuals who face barriers to work and training. It is really important to me that we have those programmes in place, but, equally, we are working with employers to address some of the barriers to employment that people face and to determine what they can do to support people into employment, which can include things such as having more accessible workplaces and removing unnecessary criteria from job applications. We have the potential to make a bit of a difference there, so I am keen to continue progressing that work.

Mr Gildernew

Minister, you answered on young people, but, more generally, what supports exist for people with a disability?

Dr Archibald

The Department and its predecessor Departments have a long history of seeking to widen access and increase participation for disabled people across the programmes and provisions that they have funded. The supports vary, depending on the type of provision that is being accessed. In addition to the widening participation funding that higher education providers invest from fee income, there is financial assistance for students via the disabled student allowance. There is a grant of up to £25,000 per annum to assist students with the additional higher education course-related expenses that they incur as a direct result of having a disability. That can cover paying for non-medical helpers, specialised equipment and travel to and from their place of study. Each year, around 2,500 students avail themselves of that support. The Department allocates £4·5 million to further education colleges each year to assist them with supporting their students. That is put to support such as specialist technology and software and non-medical helpers such as scribes and readers. It can also fund tailored courses, with smaller, more supported classes for those who, because of a disability, cannot access mainstream provision.

We also allocated funding to the colleges for the Step Up programme, with over £4 million being allocated to the disability access route to education and employment in the past two years. Support on our training programmes such as Skills for Life and Work can include extended age eligibility and time on the programme, and additional disability support is available on that programme and on our apprenticeship programme.