9. Will the Minister make a statement on the opportunities available for entering Welsh-medium post-16 education?  OQ59265

Increasing opportunities allowing people to continue to learn through Welsh is crucially important. That's why we're investing additional funding to expand post-16 Welsh-medium delivery. We're doing this jointly with Plaid Cymru as part of the co-operation agreement.

I appreciate the Minister's response. We have, for some time, talked about the Welsh-medium education continuum at school, but I'm concerned about the transition from education in school and then the post-16 period in FE college, universities and so on. I welcomed your statement a few years ago to offer an additional role for the coleg Cymraeg to secure additional investment, if you will, in post-16 education. But what are your plans to ensure that there is continuity available from school and then post 16? Because Welsh-medium education post 16 is vitally important if we are to reach the target of a million Welsh speakers.

I agree entirely with that. In the Member's own area, the Blaenau Gwent Welsh in education strategic plan includes specific targets and challenging targets, in the local context, to increase the number of post-16 learners studying Welsh as a subject and studying through the medium of Welsh in a wider range of subjects, including—and I'll just refer back to the question from Huw Irranca-Davies earlier, and this is perhaps more challenging—vocational qualifications. The track record in that area is less succesful, perhaps. But this is hugely important.

One of the things that we are doing is ensuring that we understand how the language continuum works in terms of qualifications in schools and then what's available once statutory education is left, and we understand the milestones, so that the pathway to continue to learn the language is clearly set out and accesible. But in addition to that, as the Member mentioned in his question, there's the investment in the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, which is making a difference on the ground in terms of provision. But workforce issues are still a challenge, in terms of ensuring that we have a workforce available for this, and this is part of the 10-year plan, as the Member knows. And also, in a few weeks' time, the new curriculum resource company, Adnodd, will begin its work. As part of that company's mission, they will commission specific resources to support the post-16 sector, and we're working with stakeholders at the moment to identify the needs in that area.

And finally, question 10, Luke Fletcher.