Apprentices from the Urdd are helping to inspire students at an English-medium primary school to use more Welsh through a weekly sports club.
Yusuf Billie and Hudhayfah Arish are working with Mount Stuart Primary in Cardiff as apprentices for Wales’s largest youth organisation, Urdd Gobaith Cymru. Their sports club offers learners the chance to use Welsh through community activities.
Apprenticeships through the Urdd helps build bilingual workplaces by offering opportunities for individuals to learn, develop personally and socially, and improve their confidence when using Welsh. The Urdd’s Apprenticeship Department is committed to inspiring people’s career journeys, supporting employers to develop qualified staff and meet the need for a Welsh speaking workforce in Wales.
Both apprentices running the club are new to the language, having attended an English-medium school and now taking part in daily Welsh lessons through the Urdd and National Centre for Learning Welsh. The innovative approach to learning Welsh whilst conducting an apprenticeship is helping to create a bilingual workforce for the future.
Yusuf Bille, a Diversity and Inclusion Sports Development Apprentice at the Urdd supporting the organisation’s aim to engage with underrepresented communities in Cardiff, says: “I’ve been learning Cymraeg for a year and a half now and can say hand on heart that learning Welsh has opened doors for me. I’m developing new skills, gaining valuable experiences and being offered ample opportunities through work.
“Since I started speaking Cymraeg I hear the language everywhere in Cardiff, and it’s boosted my confidence in leading sports clubs in schools and the community.”
The school’s eagerness to increase the use of Welsh within the school supports the ambitions of the government’s Welsh Language and Education Bill, aimed at giving every child in Wales a fair opportunity to speak Welsh independently and confidently, whatever their background or schooling.
Welsh language Secretary Mark Drakeford met apprentices and learners at a visit to the school. He said: “The Urdd works hard to empower young people to use Cymraeg with confidence in their daily lives. We want to build a Wales where Cymraeg thrives in every community and this kind of work, as well as our Welsh language and Education Bill, is helping us to realise that ambition.”
The Urdd is one of the largest Welsh language employers and the main provider of apprenticeships through the medium of Welsh within the third sector in Wales.
