The Skills Gap

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:55 pm on 8 February 2023.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:55, 8 February 2023

Altaf Hussain makes a very important point in relation to the changing nature of our economy and how difficult it can be sometimes to anticipate those changes. What that tells me is that we need to make sure our young people are equipped for any change in society, and that what we need to be imparting to them, as much as knowledge, are the skills and the experiences to be able to navigate a changing economy in a way that puts their interests at its heart and enables them to flourish.

I think he's right to highlight that there's a particular set of opportunities, and challenges also, in relation to the digital transformation of our society, and AI is one of those examples. He'll know that at the heart of our new curriculum is a set of digital competencies that are cross-cutting. He'll also know of the significant investment that we've made as a Government in recent years to ensure a very, very widespread level of access to computers, laptops, tablets and other devices, and the broadband connectivity that supports that. The challenge now is to make sure that, in our schools, the full functionality that that offers is able to be taken advantage of, and we are working with our profession to ensure that that is the case.