On how many occasions following the receipt of monitoring reports has the Welsh Government asked Initial Teacher Education Partnerships to provide written evidence of their actions to meet teacher recruitment targets to teach through the medium of Welsh?
From academic year 2020/21 the Welsh Government introduced a requirement for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) partnerships to work towards 30% of ITE recruitment being through Welsh medium. ITE Partnerships were notified that they may be required to provide written evidence of their actions to achieve this if progress was not evidenced.
This coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic which severely disrupted ITE programmes and required the Welsh Government to amend or disapply certain requirements to support the continued delivery of ITE. We have continued to monitor the levels of recruitment to ITE including those undertaking Welsh medium programmes.
All ITE Partnerships are required to have Welsh medium strategies in place under the welsh-in-education-workforce-plan.pdf (gov.wales) and the Initial teacher education programmes: accreditation criteria | GOV.WALES
Although there has been a slight increase in Welsh medium entrants in recent years we recognise the ongoing challenges around Welsh medium recruitment to ITE programmes and continue to work with ITE Partnerships and other partners to increase recruitment in this sector.