How is the Welsh Government supporting recently qualified teachers who have had a lack of face-to-face teaching experience due to COVID restrictions?
In September 2021 the Welsh Government set up a scheme to support those Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT) who qualified in academic year 2020/21 and those NQTs who had been undergoing induction in this year.
The scheme recognised that these cohorts had experienced a disrupted year due to the impacts of Covid and the reduction of opportunities to gain appropriate levels of face-to-face classroom experience.
The scheme offered a period of paid employment in a school to anyone who registered from these cohorts and who met the eligibility criteria.
The purpose of the scheme is to ensure that these NQTs have the opportunity to develop the confidence or experience to progress into teaching, following the disrupted experience during 2020/21.
Alongside the placement programme we also provided support for the increased role of the induction mentors (IMs). This element is to ensure that our investment in the NQT placement reaps the full intended benefits and that we’re creating a well-supported cohort of teachers to be retained in the profession. Improving the induction mentor support for NQTs is a long-term aim and will feature in the wider proposals for revisions to induction arrangements.
The original proposal was to provide a further 6 weeks of practical learning in the autumn term to enable these teachers to build confidence and experience to take up new teaching posts. This has now been extended and currently we are continuing to provide support for these placements until the end of the Spring term.
We have invested over £11 million in support for this scheme under which the Welsh Government covers the salary costs of the NQTs, provides funding for employers to cover associated costs as well as providing the funding for the increased role of IM.
Since the start of the scheme we have supported over 400 NQTs. We are currently supporting over 340 NQTs who remain on the scheme. The reduction in participants is mainly due to NQTs being successful in securing full-time employment.