Written question WQ82543

We have allocated a total of £145,865 to Bangor University's 'ARFer' project for the period 2018-21, of which £67,000 is available for the current financial year. This funding is allocated to support a project using linguistic behaviour change methodology in workplaces, which is based on work originally undertaken in the Basque Autonomous Community.

ARFer supports our vision of seeing greater use of the Welsh language, in line with Cymraeg 2050 and also Cymraeg: It belongs to us all, our internal strategy for the use of Welsh in the Welsh Government workplace. Teams within the Welsh Government and a large number of organisations across the country will pilot the ARFer toolkit that the University is developing as part of the project.

In terms of our strategy Cymraeg: It belongs to us all, we want the Welsh Government itself to be a truly bilingual institution by 2050, so that Welsh and English are used naturally and interchangeably as working languages of government. To ensure this, our aim is that all Welsh Government staff will be able to at least understand the Welsh language by 2050.

By adopting a policy that highlights the value of the Welsh language in the workplace, it is intended that more children and young people (in particular) will appreciate that the ability to speak Welsh is a useful skill, now and in the future.

We also know that setting an objective and vision for the Welsh language in the Welsh Government can influence other parts of the public sector in Wales. Our aim is to lead the way through our own actions, to inspire other organisations to increase the number of those of us who use our language on a daily basis at work.

At the end of 2020 we appointed an independent consultant to review the current Welsh language learning offer in the Welsh Government and to make a series of recommendations to ensure that our future provision will support the strategy Cymraeg: It belongs to us all. One of the main objectives of this is to develop a learning strategy to mainstream the use of the Welsh language across the organisation so that learners can use the language on a daily basis at work. Recommendations and a proposal on a new learning structure are due to be introduced in the next few weeks.

The Welsh Government offers a comprehensive programme of opportunities that support staff to learn Welsh at all levels, including weekly courses and online resources. We also support staff to undertake training through the medium of Welsh. Costs for corporate training through the medium of Welsh for our staff are part of the Learning and Development budget.

The demand for Welsh-medium courses has increased in the last year following the launch of Cymraeg: It belongs to us all, and the virtual training available.

As part of our corporate Learning and Development budget we have a training contract via the framework of the National Centre for Learning Welsh. £107k has been allocated to this contract during 2020-21.

Our new corporate learning and development framework, will be awarded in July 2021. It will include clear objectives that support the Welsh Language Standards and our Cymraeg: It belongs to us all strategy.

We are also in the process of offering a pilot course, called Leading in a Bilingual Nation, to senior leaders of organisations. Although this does not focus on Welsh as a working language, the aim is to ensure that those leaders give full regard to the spirit of Cymraeg 2050 in all their work.

In addition, we have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Welsh Language Commissioner. This outlines that the Welsh Language Commissioner has a responsibility for 'developing policy to increase the use of Welsh in workplaces and to help organisations plan their workforces'.