Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:39 pm on 27 September 2022.
I thank the Member for that range of questions. He will be aware of the increase in the number of teachers applying to ITE in recent years, and I'm sure he will be welcoming that. He will also be aware of the work we are doing to promote teaching as an attractive profession. We spend perhaps quite a lot of time in the Chamber discussing the challenges, but, in my experience, and I'm sure in his experience, teachers in classrooms will tell you about the fantastic experience they have as teachers, and the joy—. He will have had personal experience of that, given his previous career. And I think there's more that we can do to make sure that people also recognise the wonderful opportunities that teaching brings to shape the lives of young people and improve their life chances, which is the key motivator, in my experience, of people who take up teaching as a profession. We also have a package of incentives, which he will be aware of, which evidence suggests is bearing fruit in terms of recruitment, in particular into areas where it's been challenging to recruit into some subject areas.