What action will the Welsh Government take to reduce the number of teachers leaving the profession within the first 5 years after qualifying?
Our early career support package aims to ensure that newly qualified teachers (NQTs) are supported during their first years of teaching.
The statutory induction programme and regulations have recently been revised and all NQTs have access to a funded mentor and professional learning. Information about our induction arrangements can be found here: Induction.
We also fund up to 250 places on the national Masters in Education programme annually for early career teachers and experienced teachers and leaders. Information about the MA can be found here: National MA (Masters) in Education.
Last April I launched the Welsh in education teacher retention bursary as a pilot to increase the number of Welsh and Welsh-medium secondary teachers by encouraging them to remain in the profession. Further information about the Bursary can be found here: The Welsh in Education Teacher Retention Bursary.
From academic year 2022/23 we amended the ITE incentive schemes so that a portion of each of the three schemes was only payable following completion of statutory induction in a maintained school in Wales to encourage more to complete their statutory training in Wales.