Here's today's email that i recieved from the assembly.

£68 million boost to skills economy.

A major £68m funding package for apprenticeships and ProAct to support businesses, employees and learners has been announced today by Welsh Labour’s Deputy Minister for Skills John Griffiths.

The ProAct scheme will receive £48m of Welsh Assembly Government funding, including £30m from the Convergence European Social Fund, to cover the year 2009-10 and the current pilot phase. ProAct assists employers and employees to deal with a fall-off in orders and provides an alternative to redundancy by way of short time working and retraining during the days not being worked. This programme will also include support to apprentices to complete their training, whose employers are struggling to see them through to the end of the course.

To support apprenticeships during the economic downturn a further £20m will be made available, subject to support from European Structural Funds, for the creation of a package of measures to help sustain and encourage new apprenticeship recruitment.

The £68m for ProAct and apprenticeships shows Welsh Labour’s strong commitment to building solid skills foundations. This funding will provide valuable support for apprentices while encouraging new apprenticeship recruitment.

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Five projects make Severn tidal power shortlist

A proposed shortlist of schemes to generate clean, green electricity from the power of the tides in the Severn estuary has been unveiled by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The shortlist includes a mixture of barrages and innovative lagoon schemes.

Labour’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has also announced £500,000 of new funding to further develop embryonic technologies like tidal reefs and fences. The progress of these technologies will be considered before decisions are taken whether to go ahead with a Severn tidal power scheme.

The tides in the Severn estuary are the second highest in the world. The largest proposal being taken forward has the potential to generate nearly 5% of the UK’s electricity from a domestic, low carbon and sustainable source. Over the past year, the Government-led feasibility study has been investigating a list of ten options, gathering information on the costs, benefits and environmental challenges of using the estuary to generate power.

The proposed shortlist is:

·      Cardiff Weston Barrage: A barrage crossing the Severn estuary from Brean Down, near Weston super Mare to Lavernock Point, near Cardiff. Its estimated capacity is over 8.6 Gigawatts – twice that of the UK’s largest fossil fuel power plant - and it could generate nearly 5% of UK electricity.

·      Shoots Barrage: Further upstream of the Cardiff Weston scheme. Capacity of 1.05GW, similar to a large fossil fuel plant.

·      Beachley Barrage: The smallest barrage on the proposed shortlist, just above the Wye River. It could generate 625MW.

·      Bridgwater Bay Lagoon: Lagoons are radical new proposals which impound a section of the estuary without damming it.  This scheme is sited on the English shore between east of Hinkley Point and Weston super Mare. It could generate 1.36GW.

·      Fleming Lagoon: An impoundment on the Welsh shore of the estuary between Newport and the Severn road crossings. It too could generate 1.36GW.

All ten projects and the proposed shortlist will now be subject to a three month public consultation which begins today.

Further details about the proposals and the consultation can be found be clicking here.

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New chair for the National Partnership Forum for Older People appointed

Welsh Labour’s Deputy Minister for Social Services Gwenda Thomas today appointed a new chair of the National Partnership Forum for Older People.

Wendy Bourton OBE, the chief executive of Care and Repair Cymru, replaces Dr Malcolm Fisk who has completed his four-year term as chair.

The group was set up in 2004 by the Welsh Assembly Government to provide independent expert advice to help inform policies to improve the lives of older people in Wales and plan for the implications of an ageing society.