This chapter covers teacher education in early childhood and school education, higher education, and adult education.
For each of these, it focuses on three major features: initial teacher education and training, conditions of service, and continuing professional development.
It does not cover the many staff in private, voluntary and independent (PVI) early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers who are not trained teachers.
Early childhood and school education
Policy objectives
The Welsh Government’s action plan,Education in Wales: Our national mission sets out how the school system for 3- to- 19-year-olds will move forward over the period 2017-21. The focus of the plan is on raising standards for all, reducing the attainment gap, and delivering an education system that is a source of national pride and public confidence. The action plan is underpinned by four enabling objectives, the first of which underlines the importance of teachers:
- enabling objective 1: developing a high-quality education profession.
This entails supporting teachers in Wales to be lifelong professional learners that reflect on and enhance their own practice to motivate and inspire the children and young people in their care. The following actions will contribute to this enabling objective:
i) strengthen initial teacher education (ITE) using new accreditation criteria, which will expect higher education institutions (HEIs) and their school partnerships to collaborate in the design and running of high-quality teacher training programmes;
ii) attract and retain more high-quality applicants and high-calibre mature graduates into teaching through a redesigned Graduate Teacher Programme;
iii) develop, consult upon and launch new professional standards for teachers and others in the education workforce that will focus on the essential elements of successful teaching;
iv) develop a national approach to career-long professional learning that builds capacity from ITE and is embedded in evidence-based research and effective collaboration;
v) establish more effective workforce planning systems to ensure sufficient numbers of highly skilled teachers, including those able to work through the medium of Welsh and in the wide range of Additional Learning Needs (ALN) roles, and develop alternative models to ensure the quality and sufficiency of supply teachers for schools.
These actions take forward and build on the suite of reforms to ITE being made in response to Professor John Furlong's 2015 report, Teaching tomorrow’s teachers. The reforms included the introduction of revised accreditation criteria for ITE programmes and new professional standards for teachers.
Initial teacher education and training
Initial education for teachers in Wales may be referred to as initial teacher education (ITE), initial teacher education and training (ITET), or initial teacher training (ITT).
Concurrent (or undergraduate) and consecutive (or postgraduate) programmes are available.
From September 2019, all ITE programmes must be accredited by the Education Workforce Council (EWC), on the basis of criteria published in 2018. The EWC accreditation board will be responsible for accreditation which will take place at programme level. A number of partnerships across Wales comprising higher education institutions (HEIs), local authorities and schools will run accredited ITE programmes. This system will replace the existing process of accreditation of ITE providers by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW).
ITE prepares student teachers to meet the Welsh Government’s standards. These are currently the Qualified Teacher Status Standards Wales. However, they are being replaced by the Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership, which will apply to all students beginning a programme of ITE from September 2019. Student teachers who meet the standards are awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), a professional accreditation that is mandatory for appointment as a qualified teacher in a maintained school.
Conditions of service
Teachers are not civil servants, but employees of the local authority or the school governing body, depending on the legal category of the school. Teachers apply for a specific teaching post through an open application process. All those with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) wishing to teach in a maintained school in Wales must be registered with the Education Workforce Council (EWC). Their initial training, qualifications, pay, and conditions of employment are subject to regulation.
In September 2018, the Welsh Government acquired responsibility for setting pay and conditions of service for teachers in Wales. Following a consultation, a new Independent Welsh Pay Review Body was established in February 2019 to make recommendations to the Welsh Government on school teachers’ pay and conditions. Previously, the UK Secretary of State had the power to make provision for the determination of the pay and conditions for teachers in both England and Wales. The new powers in Wales are enabled under the provisions of the Wales Act 2017.
Continuing professional development
Undertaking continuing professional development (CPD) throughout a teacher’s career is regarded as a professional duty. The CPD needs of each teacher are determined by the individual and his or her school, in the context of performance management and the school development plan.
Since September 2018, all teachers and school leaders have been expected to use the new Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership. The five standards are intended to show what sustained highly effective practice looks like and provide a focus for career-long professional learning.
Higher education
Policy objectives
With a view to better aligning governance and funding arrangements, reducing duplication, complexity and gaps in provision, and ensuring a learner-focused system of post-compulsory education, the Welsh Government aims to establish a Tertiary Education and Research Commission. This will be the single integrated regulatory, oversight and co-ordinating authority for the whole post-compulsory sector in Wales, including higher education, adult education and education for young people aged 16 to 19. Its remit will include enhancing and promoting quality in teaching.
The establishment of the new body forms part of the Welsh Government’s response to Professor Ellen Hazelkorn’s March 2016 report, Towards 2030: A Framework for Building a World-Class Post-Compulsory Education System for Wales.
A consultation on initial proposals to create the new Commission took place in 2017. It was followed by a further consultation in 2018. The responses will be taken into account as the policy develops during the legislative process.
Initial teacher education and conditions of service
There is no national training programme for teaching in higher education, and higher education institutions (HEIs) have the autonomy to employ teaching staff, organise their own training provision, and supervise the continuing professional development of their staff.
Higher education staff are not civil servants. Their pay and conditions of employment are not regulated, but are negotiated and agreed nationally under a UK-wide framework agreement. Individual higher education institutions then create their own pay and grading structures using the national framework, in negotiation with local union representatives.
Continuing professional development
While there is no legal requirement for academic staff in higher education to undertake professional development, there is an expectation that they will do so. A number of organisations and frameworks exist to assist higher education institutions and their staff in fulfilling this expectation.
Adult learning
The further education (FE) sector covers a wide range of teaching roles and contexts, as it caters for adults (see the Chapter on ‘Adult Education and Training’) and many 16- to 18/19-year-olds.
Policy objectives
With a view to better aligning governance and funding arrangements, reducing duplication, complexity and gaps in provision, and ensuring a learner-focused system of post-compulsory education, the Welsh Government aims to establish a Tertiary Education and Research Commission. This will be the single integrated regulatory, oversight and co-ordinating authority for the whole post-compulsory sector in Wales, including higher education, adult education and education for young people aged 16 to 19. Its remit will include enhancing and promoting quality in teaching.
The establishment of the new body forms part of the Welsh Government’s response to Professor Ellen Hazelkorn’s March 2016 report, Towards 2030: A Framework for Building a World-Class Post-Compulsory Education System for Wales.
A consultation on initial proposals to create the new Commission took place in 2017. It was followed by a further consultation in 2018. The responses will be taken into account as the policy develops during the legislative process.
Initial teacher education and conditions of service
The qualifications requirements for teachers in the further education (FE) sector are regulated, but under a different framework from that which applies to teachers in maintained schools. All teaching staff in FE are required to hold an approved teaching qualification but requirements vary depending on the post. Teachers in FE are also required to register with the Education Workforce Council (EWC).
Pay and conditions of service in further education (FE) colleges are subject to negotiation between the employers’ organisation, ColegauCymru / CollegesWales and trade unions / professional associations. In 2014, a joint trade union group and ColegauCymru agreed a National Contract for all staff employed in FE colleges in Wales. All FE colleges have been expected to have the Contract in place since September 2016. It limits weekly working hours (37 hours for a full-time staff member) and sets recommended pay ranges. There are also a number of national agreements linked to the Contract, covering a range of other conditions of employment. Staff in the FE sector are not civil servants.
Continuing professional development
Teaching staff employed in further education (FE) colleges are required, under the Wales National Contract, to undertake at least 30 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) each year (pro-rata for part-time staff).
New Professional standards for further education teachers and work-based learning practitioners in Wales were published in November 2017. The standards are not mandatory, but aim to support and embed professional learning within professional development systems and processes.
Article last reviewed April 2021.