5. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport: Digital Innovation — Responding to the Brown Review

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:06 pm on 1 December 2020.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 4:06, 1 December 2020

Thank you very much to Jenny Rathbone, and she makes a very strong point. Clearly, we are seeing today the reality and the result of digital disruption—we've seen it in many other areas too. We can see it in the fate of local media, which has been a perfect case study in digital disruption. There's no doubt there's a huge question for the future of town centres and shopping centres as people move online, and I don't think we can stop this trend; I think we need to try and harness it. So, I think, as I said in the statement, I'm keen to look at how we can help small businesses become more digitally savvy themselves to be able to sell and trade online. And I think the NearMeNow app that Jenny Rathbone mentions is an excellent example of trying to help town centres and small businesses to be able to get online to offer their goods, and I'm keen to see what more we can do to help SMEs in particular to do that.

I don't think the digital centre in Ebbw Vale or the digital nation accelerator are the right vehicles for that. The centre in Ebbw Vale is about public service reform and delivery, and the accelerator is about research and development and how it's applied. But there is a huge role for reskilling people. The ReAct project that we already fund has the ability to help people to retrain digitally. There is, in fact, a whole range of initiatives from degree apprenticeships in IT and frameworks to essential skills qualifications that we have, the Wales Union Learning Fund and the DigiTALent project, which allows people already in work and recent graduates to upskill. But I do think we need to do more in this area, and I think the challenge for all of us is: how do we help people to upskill as they go, rather than wait for their jobs to disappear and then realise that they no longer have skills relevant for the marketplace? Welsh Government is doing a lot on skills, but I think this is one of these areas where all of us know that society needs to do more to help people to adapt.