Cymdeithas yr Iaith has welcomed the main thrust of a decision to expand the work of the Coleg Cymraeg to further education, but the language group has questioned whether the Government has the political will to allocate the necessary resources to support the development.  

Ffred Ffransis from Cymdeithas yr Iaith's education group explained:   

"This is a great step forward. It's fantastic news that the Coleg has received guarantees for its future, and is to extend its responsibility into the fields of further and workplace education through the medium of Welsh. We also welcome the news that the Coleg will become a focus for developing Welsh-language resources for schools. These developments should deal with the current scandal whereby practically no work-based education is provided in Welsh as well as the discrimination against pupils studying through the medium of Welsh due to the current lack of Welsh-language resources. But all this potential can only be realised if the Government provides realistic resources to get on with the work." 

He added: 

"Rather than waiting years for the establishment of TERCW and a new integrated regime for higher and further education, this work of integrating Welsh-medium education will begin immediately under the Coleg Cymraeg. This means that Welsh-medium education will be at the forefront of the new developments for post-16 education, instead of being behind. In fact, the Welsh-medium sector will be the pilot scheme for the future of education in Wales, making it all the more important that the Government allocates the necessary resources to the Coleg to ensure its success."