Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Our ambition for a million Welsh speakers by 2050 demands changes and actions that are far-reaching. Our new curriculum puts the Welsh language at the heart of learning in Wales, but if we are to create a nation where people speak and use the language as part of their everyday lives, increasing the number of learners in Welsh-medium schools is vital. For us to do that, of course, we need a strong and skilled workforce.

I am very pleased, therefore, to be able to publish the Welsh in education workforce plan today, which outlines the steps we will take over the next 10 years, in partnership with a range of organisations and stakeholders. The plan outlines our actions against four key aims: to increase the number of teachers able to teach Welsh as a subject or through the medium of Welsh; to increase the number of practitioners able to work through the medium of Welsh who are supporting learners; to develop the Welsh language skills of our education workforce; and to ensure that our leaders are equipped with the knowledge and skills to strategically plan and develop the Welsh language within our schools.

We have already laid solid foundations with developments in recent years, which include: introducing the Iaith Athrawon Yfory incentive, which provides up to £5,000 to students training to teach secondary subjects through the medium of Welsh or Welsh as a subject; supporting Welsh-medium primary teachers to convert to teach in the secondary sector—to date, 24 teachers have been part of the pilot programme across Wales; and, finally, expanding the range of Welsh language sabbatical scheme courses. The next step of the journey is to refine and embed some of our key policies and ensure that all stakeholders work together to achieve our aims.

We have excellent teachers, leaders and support staff in our schools. However, it can be a challenge for Welsh-medium schools, in particular, to be able to recruit the staff they need. I am currently reviewing local authorities' Welsh in education strategic plans. These will allow us to better understand and plan workforce requirements to meet the projected growth in Welsh-medium education over the next 10years.

In the meantime, there is no time to waste. We've already started to progress some of the short and long-term actions to increase the number of teachers. I've invited schools to apply for grants to support the capacity building of some parts of the Welsh-medium and bilingual education workforce during the 2022-23 academic year. I hope that schools will be able to develop innovative ways of resolving some of the challenges in terms of workforce recruitment.

A campaign to encourage more of our young people to choose Welsh at A-level is also under way. This campaign is a key part of the pathway to ensure we have sufficient teachers of Welsh as a subject further down the line. I have also asked my officials to consider how incentives and bursaries could potentially attract more people to choose teaching in Welsh-medium settings as a career.

We also need to continue our efforts to develop the Welsh language skills of our education workforce, in order to improve the teaching of Welsh in our English-medium schools. I was pleased to be able to announce in February that the National Centre for Learning Welsh will provide courses free of charge for practitioners from September onwards. These courses, along with the sabbatical scheme courses and professional learning delivered by our regional consortia and local authorities, will provide a range of provision for our practitioners.

Ensuring that we have a sufficient number of leaders for our growing number of Welsh-medium schools is also a priority, as is ensuring that all of our leaders can support the realisation of our vision for all learners to be able to use the language when they leave the school.

Additional funding will be invested over the next three years to implement this plan. As outlined in the draft budget, a further £1 million is being allocated in 2022-23, with further indicative increases of £0.5 million in 2023-24 and £2 million in 2024-25. This new funding is in addition to existing funding, which includes £0.785 million for Iaith Athrawon Yfory, £6.35 million for the sabbatical scheme and regional or local support for professional learning in Welsh, £0.7 million for the conversion programme, and £0.145 million to support activities to increase the number of learners studying Welsh as a subject. And this brings the total funding to nearly £9 million in 2022-23, which is a significant investment.

We have discussed extensively with key partners and stakeholders to fully understand the issues, and to develop the solutions that we need. I would like to thank, Dirprwy Lywydd, everyone who has contributed to the development of this plan, and especially to the task and finish group that has worked with us to suggest, develop and refine the actions.

There is a lot of work to do. We want to continue to attract and support the best teachers, assistants and leaders for our schools. I have been struck by the enormous amount of dedication, enthusiasm and commitment amongst our partners, and I'm confident that together we will be able to deliver on the actions set out in the plan for our future generations.