Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm very pleased to open this debate today on the Children, Young People and Education Committee's report into the status of the Welsh baccalaureate qualification.

Concerns about the Welsh bac have, over a number of years and all too often, been appearing in the news and in our constituency and committee inboxes alike—concerns about universities choosing not to accept the qualification, about its impact on learner choice and success in other subject areas, concerns about teachers feeling ill-prepared to deliver the qualification. As a parent of a young person who is going through the Welsh bac, I get told first hand and very regularly about some of the difficulties being faced by our young people. The weight of concerns being raised set alarm bells ringing for us as a committee. We therefore wanted to undertake this inquiry and hear directly from those on the front line—pupils, parents, teachers, employers and universities—about their experiences of the Welsh bac to establish how widespread the challenges being raised with us are.

The committee's report makes 10 recommendations. I don't intend to go through each of those recommendations today. I will instead outline some of the main concerns raised throughout the inquiry. The committee very much welcomes the response from the Minister, which accepts all bar one of the recommendations that we have made for the Government, with one recommendation accepted in principle. We also welcome the response from Qualifications Wales, which was very positive about the work the committee has undertaken and provides a clear commitment to evolving the Welsh bac so that it secures the best possible benefit to our young people. Our inquiry showed there are clear concerns about the Welsh baccalaureate. However, it is worth outlining that, despite initial doubts held by the committee, the evidence we gathered showed clear merit to studying the Welsh bac.