National Assembly for Wales

In the academic year (AY) 2022/23, less than five individuals received the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) payment for all three Initial Teacher Education (ITE) incentive schemes. In AY2023/24, no individuals received this payment for all three schemes. These figures do not include individuals who left within the academic year or did not achieve QTS or were part time students in AY 2023/24 and therefore have not yet completed ITE.

The table below shows how many individuals in each academic year have received payments from each of the ITE incentive schemes, rounded to the nearest five.

* The Priority Subject Incentive Scheme has been available in Wales in some form since before devolution and has changed multiple times over the last three decades. The most recent major set of changes came into effect in AY2022/23 whereby the scheme was substantially simplified and the payment structure amended to include completion of the statutory induction period for final payment. The figures in the table represent the number of claimants that received the first payment made during their ITE year after completion of the first term (this is lower than the number registered on the scheme as some students leave within the first term and are therefore not eligible). The figures also include Part-time PGCE students receiving the first payment in their first year of their PGCE programme.

** The Ethnic Minority ITE incentive scheme has been available since AY2022/23. The figures represent the number of claimants that received the first payment, made on award of QTS, and this has not yet been claimed for AY2024/25. The number of claimants is lower than the number registered on the scheme as some students leave within the academic year or fail their ITE Programme and therefore are not eligible.

*** The Iaith Athrawon Yfory incentive scheme has been available since AY 2018/19. The figures represent the number of claimants receiving the first payment, made on award of QTS where claims were received from eligible students. From AY2018/19 to AY2022/23 students were responsible for claiming this incentive directly from Welsh Government. There was a small number of cases over those years where students did not claim within the required timescales and were therefore ineligible to claim. The figures do not include these students. From AY2023/24 ITE Partnerships have been responsible for claiming on behalf of eligible students. Claims have not yet been made for AY2024/25.

We intend to publish data in Autumn 2025 on how many individuals are teaching in Wales who received the Priority Subject incentive, following completion of a data linking project undertaken by the Education Workforce Council. We plan to repeat this exercise in future years and to extend it to the other ITE incentive schemes if resources allow.