7. Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government’s progress in implementing the recommendations of Professor Sioned Davies’s report on learning Welsh? OAQ(5)0023(EDU)[W]

Welsh will remain compulsory to age 16, and the new curriculum will include a language continuum for Welsh from 2021. We have piloted expanding Welsh in other subject areas, and remain focused on increasing our young people’s communication skills. We are also increasing support on Welsh to teachers and schools.

Thank you. Last week, you said, as you’ve repeated today, that Welsh as a second language would not be taught as part of the new curriculum by 2021, and, to replace it, there would be one continuum of Welsh language learning for every pupil. But I’m still not clear about the changes to the qualifications. Can you confirm what was said in the press following the interview on ‘Newyddion 9’, the Welsh language news programme, that is, that you will be replacing Welsh as a second language with one single Welsh qualification that every pupil will have by 2021?

I know that many people regretted the words that I used. I personally was surprised at that too, because I wasn’t changing policy; I was reiterating current policy. We are at present in a transition period from where we were when Professor Sioned Davies published her report up until the introduction of the new curriculum in 2021. The second language Welsh qualification will be replaced in exactly the way that you have suggested in 2021, and we will look at how we will develop different qualifications for the period beginning from 2021.

Professor Sioned Davies’s report recommends that post-16 qualifications should be reformed to develop better oral language skills that would be appropriate for the workplace, and, following that, the Welsh Government have said that you

‘will work with Awarding Organisations and other stakeholders’.

Who are those? Have you been speaking to Tata Steel, Tidal Lagoon Power, Aston Martin or the Ford Motor Company to discover what their views are at present on the Welsh language and to help them understand how these skills would be of great advantage to major employers? And do you agree that this should all begin before 2021?

I’m very happy to continue the discussion on that if the Member has some suggestions that she’d like to make. But may I say this? There has been a great deal of discussion as to where we are at present since Professor Sioned Davies’s report was published. There will be fundamental changes introduced over the next few years, and therefore there won’t be a lost period, as some have suggested, but there will be a transition period from where we were to where we will be. The discussions that the Member described have taken place and will continue to happen, and I’m more than happy to continue and enhance the discussions with those groups that she mentioned and others, if need be. But may I say this? My priority is to ensure that people leave school with the ability to speak and use the Welsh language, not just so they can pass an exam at 16, but so that they are able to use and speak Welsh during their lifetime. Therefore we are moving in quite a fundamental way to change the way in which teach the Welsh language.