A quick thought on what I think could be a very modern twist on studying the so-called classics and a subject that could be very useful for students applying to certain universities. What about something in the curriculum to inspire an interest in languages and how this links to culture, national identities and communication; covering the history of languages - Indo European and Non-Indo European.
This is something that could give context to languages and create a lifelong interest in languages. You could look at language families on the Indo-European side of things - including Greek, Latin, Celtic, Slavic and Germanic - also linking to things like Sanskrit etc.
Tolkein provides a great role model for someone who loved languages and became one of the most influential authors of the twentieth century - his love for languages created immense value on a global scale - once ranked by Forbes magazine as the fifth top earning “dead celebrity”. Google translate provides an example of how knowledge of languages can lead to the creation of technology outlets that create and derive value, leading to career opportunities for those who have high level skills in understanding of linguistics and related IT skills.
You could also include people like Edward Lhuyd from a historical perspective and many, many more. A lot of the early linguists were also scientists - botany and physics, people like Thomas Young - famed for Young’s Modulus in science. So many links it could be a very rich subject in terms of science, history and communication, not to mention the workings of the brain and psychology.
Being one of the few survivors of the Celtic languages, Welsh would have a prominent role and it would be a very useful subject to have alongside other languages as more discrete subjects.
This would be a very contemporary and valuable subject in our modern world of mass communication and social media - it does link very nicely in my mind. Things like coding at the end of the day are just contemporary languages, very, very useful, albeit never spoken. In my eyes, sciences are also languages and any subject that can consider all of these things from a language perspective would be a very valuable thing in the current era.
How does this link to the goal of 1 million Welsh speakers, well the key thing to learning languages is the motivation to learn. This provides a motivation to learn which is very outward looking in terms of understanding the importance of all languages. Students doing a subject like this should be motivated to learn languages from different language families and appreciate that this enhances their knowledge of communication and appreciation of other cultures. It is possible to export using solely English, but you can export better knowing local languages and cultures. Surely it is important when trying to understand other cultures that we also have in-depth knowledge of our own; this is surely a foundation step.
All of the worlds knowledge is wrapped up in languages - it is a part of the knowledge economy and it is important to understand that no single language can possibly encapsulate the breadth of human knowledge. Celtic languages have a place in understanding the modern wold and learning Welsh has significant importance, beyond our communities and our borders.