People seeking jobs with the Welsh Government will in future need to speak at least a ‘courtesy’ level of basic Welsh in order to gain employment.
A Government statement said this would include the ability to answer the phone bilingually, as well as pronouncing and understanding simple words.
“Candidates will be expected to show the skills either on appointment or within six months of recruitment,” the statement said.
The move is part of what the Government called a significant change to its recruitment policies, as part of an aim to become bilingual.
“Job advertisements for Civil Servants will no longer say Welsh language skills are not required, but that it will be “desirable, essential or to be taught on the post”, for every vacancy or new post,” the statement said.
The move came under attack from the Opposition Conservatives with a spokesperson saying that while the party was “committed to delivering one million Welsh speakers” at a time of national recovery, the Government’s present priority should be recruiting the best person for the job.
“Currently a large majority of people in Wales — nearly three-quarters — do not speak Welsh, but that shouldn’t prohibit them from working in the Civil Service and contributing to Welsh public life,” the spokesperson said.
In a further statement, the Government said everyone had the potential to be a Welsh speaker and its strategy did not conflict with its commitment to being open, inclusive and diverse.
It said that although Welsh-language skills would progressively be needed for more posts, “developing a bilingual workforce does not mean (or imply) those skills being a universal pre-requisite for joining the Welsh Government”.
There are about 5,500 full-time equivalent Welsh Public Service positions.
Cardiff, 14 July 2021
