THE Welsh Government is determined to make sure the UK continues its involvement in a programme that enables students to study in European Union countries, said First Minister Mark Drakeford.
Replayign to a question from Torfaen AM Lynne Neagle, Mr Drakeford said he is "determined that young people in the future are not denied opportunities" that would come as a result of taking part in the Erasmus plus study programme.
Ms Neagle used a question to the First Minister to call on the Welsh Government to ensure Wales continues to play a full part in the "life-changing" EU student study abroad programme Erasmus plus.
The AM, who chairs the National Assembly’s Children, Young People and Education Committee, said that as a young student from a working class home, she had valued being an Erasmus student herself.
"I was an Erasmus student. I, from a working-class home, from one of Wales’s most deprived communities, who had never been able to have a family holiday abroad, was able to go and study at the University of Paris under the Erasmus programme, and have always been grateful for that opportunity," said Ms Neagle.
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The AM asked the question in response to last week’s decision by Westminster MPs to vote against New Clause 10 - an amendment to the government’s Brexit bill which would have compelled the UK government "to seek to negotiate continuing full membership of the EU’s Erasmus plus education and youth programme."
Ms Neagle called on the First Minister to work with the Minister for Education to ensure Wales continues to play a full part in the "life-changing EU programme."
"Continued participation in Erasmus is not in any way incompatible with leaving the EU," she said.
"Will you, working with your Minister for Education, do everything you can to impress upon the UK Government the enormous benefits that Erasmus plus brings to young people, especially our most disadvantaged young people?’
Mr Drakeford said: "Surely we ought all to be determined that young people in the future are not denied opportunities that have come the way of others as a result of participation in Erasmus and Erasmus plus.
"The Welsh Government has consistently argued in meetings with UK Ministers for the UK to continue to participate in the programme
"There is nothing in leaving the European Union that means that we have to leave Erasmus plus.
"Wales has been a huge beneficiary of it. Over £40 million has come to Wales for Erasmus plus projects between 2014 and 2018."
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