Don't make us security guards, says teacher stabbed by pupil A teacher who thought she was going to die when she was stabbed by a 13-year-old pupil in the schoolyard has said giving staff handheld scanners will not stop violence in schools. Liz Hopkin, who was attacked at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in 2024, said she felt really worried after the Welsh government announced it would offer school staff more guidance on what to do if they suspected a pupil had brought a weapon into school. It comes as a 15-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder after a teacher was stabbed at a school in the neighbouring county. Hopkin said teachers aren't security, while the Welsh government said the resources were about prevention, building on existing guidance. Hopkin, her colleague Fiona Elias and a pupil were attacked at the school where she worked in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, by a girl who had previously been found with a knife.

The Economic Action Plan (EAP) has set the direction for a broader and more balanced approach to economic development with a shift towards a focus on place and making communities stronger and more resilient. The EAP places a greater emphasis on tackling inequality and signals a shift to a'something for something' relationship with business. Promoting inclusive growth through a new focus on the foundational economy sits alongside the other three pillars of our Economic Contract; supporting business investment that future-proofs the economy through Calls to Action; a regional approach to investing in the skills people need to enter, remain and progress in work; and the infrastructure communities need to be connected and vibrant. The foundational economy approach offers the chance to reverse the deterioration of employment conditions, reduce the leakage of money from communities and address the environmental cost of extended supply chains.With join-up across portfolio responsibilities we are driving a greater synergy between the Valleys Taskforce, Better Jobs Closer to Home programmes and maximising the social value of procurement with what may be described as mainstream Government economic interventions. A Ministerial Advisory Board Task and Finish Group on the Foundational Economy has been established to provide advice to Welsh Ministers on current and future interventions and best practice; support wider engagement with stakeholders in the foundational economy; and promote join-up of relevant government and non-governmental initiatives.

Schools are to be given £1.3m to set up clubs to teach computer coding. The investment over five years is part of the Welsh Government's £100m to raise school standards over the assembly term. Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said she wanted all pupils to have the opportunity to learn about and get involved in coding as the importance of digital skills continues to grow. It is estimated there will be 100,000 new coding jobs by 2020 in the UK. The Welsh Government said there are currently about 1.5 million jobs in the digital sector in the UK, 400,000 of which involve coding.

Funding of nearly £38m is expected to be announced for a facility to make compound semiconductors - a new technology behind robotics, 5G and driverless cars. The 10 councils in the Cardiff Capital Region are set to develop the foundry in Newport, which could create about 2,000 high skilled jobs in five years. The funding follows £12m from the Welsh Government in November 2015. It could make a world-leading hub for the new technology. The factory would be owned by the councils and is projected to create £375m of private sector investment in the next five years.

Finance Wales has invested in a London-based tech company which has established a new operation in Cardiff creating four jobs. The Welsh Government wholly-owned investment bank subsidiary has backed cloud.IQ as of part of a £4m equity investment round. IQ's artificial intelligence platform uses machine learning to enable e-commerce business to increase revenues and reduced costs. Powered by data an analytics, the platform responds to data sets in real time to trigger personalised customers experiences and as a result drives customer conversion results at scale. The latest funding round was led by Nauta Capital, who were advised by Armada Ventures.

Amplyfi, a start-up that specialises in mining and interpreting data from the Deep Web using artificial intelligence, is to create forty new jobs in Cardiff following support from the Welsh Government. A £400,000 0% interest loan from the Welsh Government's Repayable Fund for SMEs will enable Amplyfi to take on more highly skilled staff to support and refine its business intelligence platform, DataVoyant. The funding follows an August 2016 investment by SME investors Finance Wales Group to accelerate the growth of high-potential businesses in Wales. Amplyfi moved to Cardiff in December 2015 where it has been developing and piloting DataVoyant their flagship product. DataVoyant combines Surface and Deep Web data mining, artificial intelligence and data visualisation in a single user-friendly platform - an industry first.