Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:11 pm on 13 June 2023.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
2:11,
13 June 2023
Well, Llywydd, I think Altaf Hussain makes some really important points in what he just said. There is no doubt at all that the world of work is changing, and the jobs of the future will not simply be a reflection of the opportunities that were there in the past. In many parts of Wales, we have really excellent examples of new industries emerging that will offer young people in those localities the opportunities that we would want to see for them. When I was in France in March, I went to visit the headquarters of Thales—Thales who have a major investment in Ebbw Vale in cyber security, new jobs, jobs of the future, and now a really major new partnership emerging between Thales in Canada and Thales in Ebbw Vale. The company read a list to me of the countries around the globe who had now visited Ebbw Vale because it is a centre of excellence in the training of young people for those jobs.
Interestingly—the Member will be interested in this, I know—the people on the ground said to me that one of the challenges they faced was you could enthuse a young woman aged 13 or 14 about a future in cyber security. That young person then goes home and says to her parents, 'I'd like to be in cyber security in the future', and the parents say, 'Cyber security? I haven't heard of that. I know what a nurse does. I know what a teacher does. I know what somebody who works for the council does. Wouldn't it be better to stick to something where we know what we're doing here?'. So, their point was alive very much to the point that Altaf Hussain has made—that, in order to create those opportunities for the future, it's not just young people who we have to persuade, but we have to persuade families as well that the world of work is changing and the opportunities that will be there for their children and their grandchildren will be different, and they need to be with us on that journey.
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