Evaluation of Welsh-Medium provision in Initial Teacher Education

Key findings

• There has been a general decline in the number of ITE trainees participating in Welsh-medium secondary ITE provision recently, despite ITE provider efforts.
• The majority of trainee teachers and new teachers who contributed to the evaluation had already decided to undertake Welsh-medium ITE provision prior to enrolling on the course and very few were aware of the financial incentive available via the Welsh-medium Improvement Scheme prior to enrolling on to the course.
• The extent to which ITE provision is delivered through the medium of Welsh differs across ITE providers.
• ITE providers find it difficult to provide Welsh-medium provision due to the low number of ITE trainees enrolled at their institution and the lack of Welsh language skills amongst staff.
• Welsh language (gloywi iaith) lessons are considered to play a significant part in improving the Welsh language skills of trainees.
• Positive feedback was provided where trainees had experienced more differentiated Welsh language skills provision.
• School placements play a vital part in developing and improving trainees’ Welsh-medium teaching skills and the role played by language mentors was thought to make an important contribution to this.

The report concludes with a number of recommendations for the Welsh Government, in collaboration with its stakeholders, to consider. 

It considers five key issues:

• the continued decline in the number of prospective trainees and the difficulties associated with recruitment to Welsh-medium ITE
• the complexity and fragmented configuration of current provision and the need to simplify and develop greater consistency across Welsh-medium ITE
• the need to increase Welsh language capacity of ITE secondary provision and explore opportunities for closer collaboration between providers and schools
• making the most effective use of financial incentivisation to attract trainees and retain teachers to teach through the medium of Welsh
• the need to consider on-going opportunities for new teachers to develop their Welsh language skills and their pedagogical understanding and knowledge in relation to different Welsh-medium and bilingual settings.