What is the Welsh Government doing to encourage graduates to stay in Wales, and for Welsh graduates elsewhere to return to Wales?
Encouraging graduates to stay in and return to Wales is key to the Welsh Government ambition to create a high skill knowledge-based economy and prosperous and healthy communities. The Welsh Government and Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) have introduced a range of and initiatives with this ambition in mind. For example, HEFCW has introduced a Targeted Employability Support Scheme which aims to help graduates furthest from the labour market to find graduate employment, and by its nature tends to focus on employers in Wales. W23/15HE: Targeted Employability Support for Students: Delivery Plans and Allocations - HEFCW
HEFCW also used the Welsh Government Covid Recovery Funds to provide the Graduate Support Fund to help students who graduated during the pandemic in finding employment. HEFCW then continued this with a further £1.5m during AY 21/22. W22/04HE: Graduate Support Fund II - HEFCW