I'd like to make a brief intervention to highlight the role technology can have in helping us to develop a robust workforce plan for the future. Only today, the news has been reported of one in three jobs in Wales being at risk from automation by the early 2030s, and that analysis shows that jobs with routine and repetitive tasks—many of which will be able to be replaced by algorithms and by artificial intelligence within the next 20 years. And Bill Gates has commented that we often overestimate the pace of change that we're likely to see over the next two years, but underestimate the pace of change we're likely to see over the next 10 years. Certainly, in the next decade or more, all aspects of society will be impacted by the potential of artificial intelligence, and education is certainly central to that. 

The amendment tabled by Plaid Cymru quotes figures from the NUT showing that 50,000 working days are lost by teachers due to stress-related illness and, in their view, it's getting worse with a third set to leave the profession in the next few years. But, actually, harnessing technology can help alleviate the strain on teachers and greatly assist them in their tasks in the classroom—routine tasks—freeing them up to do what they came into education to do—to teach, to nurture, to coach, to lead, and we really need to be, when we are discussing future plans for the education workforce, thinking about the centrality that technology can have to unleash the potential of teachers.

I'll just mention just a couple of examples that are available using existing technology. One is something called Zzish, which is a virtual teaching assistant that helps teachers instantly see which of their students need help in real time, what they're struggling with through an assessment application, which allows, then, the teachers to track individual performance, the class as a whole, and see clear improvement over time. That's just one example of existing technologies, and, as I say, with the pace of development we're likely to see through artificial development over the next 10 years, that potential will become even greater. 

So, my plea to all Members and to the Government is to put technology at the heart of their thinking of how we can support the teaching sector so they don't feel overburdened by stressful, repetitive, dull tasks, and actually could be freed up to do what they came into the profession to do. Diolch.