Online PGCE can make Wales world leader in teacher training
Wales is launching an online, part-time teacher training course to address a recruitment shortfall and encourage people from different backgrounds into the profession.
Numbers of trainee teachers fell again in 2016-17 and numbers of students able to teach in Welsh are at their lowest point for a decade.
The Welsh Government said its new part-time Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) aims to address the issue and woo more candidates into the profession.
The new course, which combines online study with tutorials and seminars, replaces the Graduate Teacher Programme.
Announcing the changes on Tuesday, Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said: “Our new curriculum cannot be delivered without a wellsupported, aspirational teaching profession.”
The change comes after the number of new secondary school trainee teachers for Wales missed the target by more than a third in 2016-17 and the number of new primary school trainees dropped slightly below target for a second year.
The target for primary courses was 750, but only 700 students enrolled. The target for secondary courses was 871, but only 545 students enrolled.
There has also been a small fall in the number of students able to teach in Welsh, which is at its lowest point since 2008-09, Welsh Government figures show.
The data covers trainee teachers at universities in Wales and also students from Wales studying Initial Teacher Education (ITE) across the UK.
People on the Graduate Teacher Programme and Schools Direct are not included in the figures.
Kirsty Williams said the new online, part-time PGCE would provide a high-quality alternative to full-time study and remove the need for students to travel to attend their chosen course.
Students will communicate with their lecturers and fellow students online.
In addition to the new PGCE, the Education Secretary also announced a new Employment-Based Route (EBR), which will see a student teacher employed by a school from the outset. This would be targeted to help regional consortia address teaching shortages in schools region by region.
Both the part-time PGCE and EBR will enable student teachers to maintain their current commitments, including employment and income, while studying to be a teacher, she said.
Students on the courses will be able to fund their studies via Wales’ new student finance arrangements. From the 2018-19 academic year, all Welsh students – whether studying as full- or part-time undergraduates – will receive support for their living costs equivalent to the UK national living wage.
Announcing the changes, Ms Williams said: “An education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers and our new curriculum cannot be delivered without a wellsupported, aspirational teaching profession.
“The new part-time PGCE has the potential to completely transform the way Initial Teacher Education in Wales is delivered, complementing our equally high-quality full-time ITE programmes.
“New students who may previously never have considered a career in teaching or been put off by costs or their location will have access to an academic qualification and programme that is of the very highest standard while also being flexible and easily accessible.
“It’s by harnessing technology in this way that we’ll attract highly talented, experienced people with the higher-level skills needed by both the teaching profession and our wider economy.
“I am confident that along with the step-change in our soon-to-beaccredited full-time ITE programmes, the new part-time PGCE and EBR, together with new Professional Standards for teaching and accreditation criteria for initial teacher education, will allow us to raise standards across the board and make Wales a world leader.”
The new PGCE replaces the Graduate Teacher Programme, which did not include an academic qualification.
Science, maths and English are the most common subjects for entrants to secondary school ITE courses in Wales.
Nine out of every 10 new ITE students training in Wales were living in Wales before they started their degree and there were more than twice as many females as males starting to train as teachers in Wales in 2016-17.