Initial teacher education: August 2022 to July 2024 (headline results)

This headline serves as an initial release of data for both the academic years 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024. This was delayed due to delays in receiving the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student data, data quality issues and a restructuring of the data. A full bulletin with accompanying StatsWales cubes will be published at a later date.

Information about students training to become teachers on courses of initial teacher education (ITE) that lead to qualified teacher status (QTS) for two academic periods- August 2022 to July 2023, and August 2023 to July 2024. The most recent data in this update is academic year 2023/24. It covers students training to teach at higher education providers in Wales and also students from Wales training to teach across the UK.

Figures used throughout this release are based on a count of enrolments. For both 2022/23 and 2023/24, the Education Workforce Council (EWC) set the allocations for ITE courses in Wales. Separate allocations were set for the Open University by the Welsh Government. The allocations are set for numbers of student teachers to teach at primary and secondary school levels, and for numbers of students studying postgraduate and undergraduate ITE degrees.

Figure 1: Entrants and intake allocations to ITE courses in Wales, 2016/17 to 2023/24

Image

Description of Figure 1: A line chart showing that entrant enrolments for primary school surpassed allocations for the fourth consecutive year, while entrant enrolments for secondary school have been lower than allocations since 2016/17.

Source: HESA Student record, Education Workforce Council (EWC) and Welsh Government

Enrolments in Welsh higher education providers

• There was a total of 2,040 ITE enrolments in Welsh higher education providers in 2023/24 (2,070 in 2022/23).
• There were 1,405 entrant enrolments in 2023/24. This is 3% higher than the number of entrants in 2022/23.
• 895 entrants were training to teach at primary school (880 entrants in 2022/23) and 505 entrants were training to teach at secondary school (485 entrants in 2022/23).
• The number of entrants to primary school ITE courses in Wales was 18% higher than the allocations in 2023/24.
• The number of entrants to secondary school ITE courses in Wales was 56% lower than the allocations in 2023/24.
• In 2023/24, 6% of ITE entrants permanently addressed in the UK and whose ethnicity was known were from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic group (3% in 2022/23).
• 87% of ITE entrants studying in Wales in 2023/24 were permanently addressed in Wales before they started their ITE course (88% in 2022/23).

Enrolments of students permanently addressed in Wales to UK providers

• There was a total of 2,415 ITE enrolments from students permanently addressed in Wales at providers in the UK in 2023/24 (2,530 in 2022/23).
• There were 1,595 entrant enrolments in 2023/24. This is 3% lower than the number of entrants in 2022/23.
• 1,015 entrants were training to teach at primary school (1,075 entrants in 2022/23) and 585 entrants were training to teach at secondary school (565 entrants in 2022/23).
• 77% of ITE entrants permanently addressed in Wales before they started their ITE course studied their ITE course in a Welsh higher education provider (74% in 2022/23).

For the academic years 2016/17 to 2021/22, figures may differ slightly to those published in previous ITE publications. This is due to changes in inclusion criteria such that all ITE courses leading to QTS are now included, and the use of fixed databases.

For 2022/23, there was a large increase in the amount of missing ethnicity data for students whose permanent address is in the UK. To account for this, ethnicity data from 2021/22 was used to impute ethnicity for continuing students at providers in England and Wales where ethnicity information was missing or unknown for students within coverage, excluding where it had been returned as 'Prefer not to say'.

For 2022/23 and 2023/24, some students at the University of South Wales that were recorded as being on ITE courses that led to QTS did not have an ITE phase accreditation recorded. Upon coordinating with the provider, an ITE phase was derived for the affected students using course titles where appropriate. Students who were on a course with no ITE phase accreditation were treated as not on an ITE course that leads to QTS.

Country of provider

Country of provider is based on the address of the administrative centre of the Higher Education provider attended. For Open University students, the country of provider is based on the address of the national centre of the Open University.

Entrant

For academic years prior to 2022/23, students with a start date between 1 August Y1 and 31 July Y2 (the following year). For academic years from 2022/23, students with a start date between 18 July Y1 and 17 July Y2. This means that the definition of entrants prior to 2022/23 and from 2022/23 differ. However, this difference in definition has no substantial impact on the figures reported in this release.

Permanent address

Student’s home address on entry to the Engagement. For the purposes of analysis, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man are included as part of the UK. Officially, the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK or the EU.

Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) covers all paths to someone becoming a teacher. In this publication, ITE courses are restricted to courses only where successful completion of the course leads to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). This publication covers people becoming teachers through formal Higher Education courses.

Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)

Qualified Teacher Status is necessary to teach in a maintained school in Wales. QTS in Wales is different from QTS in England or General Teaching Council registry in Northern Ireland and Scotland. However, QTS gained in England enables those teachers to teach in Wales. Teachers with QTS gained in Scotland and Northern Ireland can apply to the Education Workforce Council (EWC) for recognition as a school teacher eligible to practice in Wales. Internationally trained teachers can also apply to EWC to have their teaching qualifications recognised and gain QTS in Wales.

ITE phase

ITE phase refers to whether the course is focused on training primary or secondary school teachers. When qualified, a teacher may teach a different age range than they originally trained for. The ITE phase is determined by the ITE accreditation that student is attempting to obtain.

Some ITE course accreditations cover a wider age range. In those cases, the ITE phase is determined by the oldest age group the accreditation covers.

Statistician: Sedeek Ameer
Email: HigherEducationAndStudentFinance.Stats@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

Image