Welsh in Education Teacher Retention Bursary 2025: guidance

The Welsh in Education Teacher Retention Bursary ('the Bursary') supports the Welsh Government’s ambition of a million Welsh speakers by 2050. 

It offers a £5000 bursary to retain Welsh and Welsh-medium secondary teachers in the profession.

The Bursary is a pilot scheme, which will be available until the end of 2028.

Eligibility criteria are the same whether you are working full or part-time or have undertaken a mixture of both. Eligibility criteria are also the same wherever you are on the teacher pay scale or if you are in receipt of additional responsibilities allowances, for example TLR for head of year group.

To be eligible, you must meet all of the following criteria. 

You must:

• have gained QTS from August 2020
• have completed 3 years of teaching since you have been awarded QTS

You must have also completed one of the following:

• 3 years of teaching Welsh as a subject to learners aged 11 to 19 in a maintained secondary or middle school in Wales
• 3 years of teaching any subject through the medium of Welsh to learners aged 11 to 19 in a maintained Welsh-medium or bilingual secondary or middle school in Wales

You must be employed in your fourth year of teaching in one of the following:

• teaching learners aged 11 to 19 in a Welsh-medium or bilingual secondary or middle school in Wales
• teaching Welsh as a subject to learners aged 11 to 19 in an English-medium secondary school

You must apply within 2 years of having reached the required 3 years of service.

Eligible school categories

You are eligible if you teach through the medium of Welsh in schools which are in categories 2 and 3.

Teachers in middle schools for ages 3 to 19, are eligible to apply if:

• more than 50% of your teaching timetable in each of the 3 years post QTS has been allocated to teaching learners in years 7 to 13
• you meet the eligibility criteria

This will need to be verified by the applicant and the current headteacher as part of the application form.

Teachers who have already received the Iaith Athrawon Yfory incentive are eligible to apply, if they meet the criteria.

Teacher training background

You can apply if you meet the eligibility criteria and if you have:

• trained outside of Wales and the EWC has recognised your QTS
• trained via the Open University employment-based programmes
• not specifically trained to teach through the medium of Welsh but are now doing so and have done so for 3 years

Teachers who have been away from school

You are eligible to apply if you have been away from school due to:

• ill health
• parental leave
• disciplinary proceedings

You must have been employed for 3 years post QTS, without a contractual break in service and meet the eligibility criteria.

Teachers not eligible for the Bursary

• Teachers at an independent school.
• Teachers at a sixth form college.
• Teachers at a further education institution.

Eligible teachers will be paid £5,000 during their fourth year of teaching.

The Welsh Government will cover tax and national insurance contributions in relation to the Bursary.

You can apply for the Bursary from 1 to 30 September 2025 if you meet all of the eligibility criteria. 

Teachers must have 3 years of service and be employed in their fourth year of teaching before they can apply. If you have less than 3 years of service, you can apply in subsequent years.

You need to complete the application form and include all of the following:

• the date you gained QTS
• EWC teacher reference number
• current employer
• a list of previous employers along with the relevant dates

Once you have completed the form, you should send it via email to athrawoncc.wmteachers@gov.wales.

Applications that are incomplete or are submitted late will be rejected. Applicants will be able to resubmit an application the following year.

You must apply within 2 years of having reached the required 3 years of service.

Successful applicants will be informed by the end of November 2025, and the Bursary will be paid by the end of February 2026.

Email receipts will be provided by Welsh Government. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure safe receipt of emails. Copies of emails and any application forms sent to Welsh Government should be kept by applicants for their records. 

Confirmation of receipt emails received from Welsh Government should also be kept. If an applicant has not received a confirmation of receipt email within 10 days, they should assume the email has not been received.

The Department for Work and Pensions is a UK Government department responsible for welfare and pension policy. You should seek advice from them on your individual circumstances.

Bursary and pensions

The Bursary is not pensionable.

Bursary and student loan

Where a teacher is repaying a student loan the Bursary payment may take them over the monthly threshold for their repayment plan. In this case the Bursary will be reduced by the additional repayment amount towards the student loan. Further details about this can be found on the gov.uk website: Repaying your student loan.

The Welsh Ministers have powers to provide financial assistance under sections 14 to 17 of the Education Act 2002 for the promotion of the recruitment or retention of teachers or non-teaching staff. The Bursary is made in the exercise of those powers.

No bursary will be paid to a person unless they have made an application to the Welsh Ministers, care of the Welsh Government on the correct form and submitting the evidence requested.

The Welsh Ministers may require the Bursary to be repaid in whole or in part if, for example, the recipient has provided in, or in connection with, their application, information which is false or materially misleading.

Information which an individual submits as part of their application for the Bursary, is subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'FOIA'), the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (the 'EIR') the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (the 'DPA').

Applicants also acknowledge that the Welsh Government is responsible for determining in its absolute discretion whether:

• to disclose any information which we have obtained under or in connection with the funding to the extent that we are required to disclose such information to a person making a disclosure request under the FOIA or the EIR
• any information is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA or the EIR

Welsh Government is the data controller for the personal information it receives. Any personal data we collect and share with local authorities and schools will be managed in accordance with our privacy notice for this scheme.

Please contact athrawoncc.wmteachers@gov.wales if you have any questions.