Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 5 February 2020.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 2:34, 5 February 2020

(Translated)

Thank you. Clearly, this is something that is a challenge for us. And I think it's important that we acknowledge that. I will be interested to read the strategy that the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol has launched this lunchtime to see what they foresee as the best way forward. But I do think that what's important is that we do what we can to increase the numbers in this field, and we are taking very specific steps.

I've mentioned the annual census in the workplace. Initial teacher training courses now include 25 hours of Welsh, and that is a step forward. We have Iaith Athrawon Yfory, which has an incentive of £5,000 to encourage people to act and to train through the medium of Welsh. There is a sabbatical scheme also. We have work in terms of collaboration with the regional consortia. We have all sorts of steps that we're already taking. There are about 15 things that we're doing to take these steps forward. I don't think that it’s one thing, and that’s why we're taking advantage of the opportunity. Each one of these, of course, will feed in, I think, ultimately, to how many people are available to work in this field.