6. Will the Minister make a statement on progress towards its target of one million Welsh speakers by 2050? OAQ53284

Cymraeg 2050 is an ambitious long-term strategy. Our initial efforts have concentrated on laying firm foundations for the future, building from the ground up to secure enough learners through the education system. We’re on track to reach our 2021 targets as regards the early years sector, and, of course, the Welsh in education strategic plans have helped us to do that.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. Last year, the North Wales Economic Ambition Board launched a document called 'The Welsh Language in North Wales'. It was a document that was aimed at promoting and increasing bilingualism across the region. The findings in that report identified the fact that employers in both the public and private sector are wanting to have more employees who have the ability to speak both English and Welsh. So, there's a growing appetite, but, unfortunately, there are not sufficient opportunities for people to learn the language, particularly adults. I wonder what work you might be able to do with the North Wales Economic Ambition Board, and others in the North Wales region, to promote opportunities for adults to learn the Welsh language where they don't have any Welsh language skills, so that we can see the sort of ambition in this document fulfilled in the future.

Thank you. I think we've really increased quite significantly our relationships with businesses and our promotion of the Welsh language. So, we're very proud that the National Centre for Learning Welsh has put considerable effort into teaching Welsh in the workplace, and that's been taken up by literally thousands of people. So, I would encourage them to make sure that they are looking into the opportunities there. The other thing, of course, is that the Welsh Language Commissioner can provide lanyards and badges and provide services through the medium of Welsh, to make sure that people are aware of who exactly speaks Welsh so that you do get an opportunity to practise the language.

Of course, we've got Cymraeg Byd Busnes. What we've done is to provide about 11 different officials who can go into companies and help them to increase their use of Welsh, making sure that they, perhaps, can translate little bits of information. We're also very keen to see people coming out from schools and colleges—colleges in particular. We've moved now from simply concentrating on higher education into further education, and now there's an action plan that is delivering a new model. Of course, the more people we can get to keep hold of their Welsh and use it in the workplace, the better.

Thank you, Minister.