Iaith Athrawon Yfory Incentive Scheme: guidance for students 2024 to 2025

This incentive scheme provides a £5,000 grant to students who undertake a secondary postgraduate initial teacher education (ITE) programme. The programme must be one of the following:

• taught through the medium of Welsh
• enable the student to teach Welsh as a subject

This guidance relates to the 2024 to 2025 academic year. You can apply for this grant if you’re on a ITE programme leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) between 1 September 2024 and 31 August 2025. 

You should read this guidance in conjunction with the legal scheme. This sets out the statutory requirements of the scheme.

The Iaith Athrawon Yfory incentive scheme supports the Cymraeg 2050 Welsh language strategy. 

This scheme is aimed at students on secondary postgraduate ITE programmes in Wales. You must be studying to teach through the medium of Welsh or to teach Welsh as a subject. The scheme is available to both full-time and part-time students.

Funding might not be available to students who have been accepted onto an ITE programme after the intake allocation has been reached. Check with your ITE Partnership whether you are affected by this.

Programme eligibility

For an ITE programme to be eligible it must:

• be accredited by the Education Workforce Council’s (EWC’s) Teacher Education Accreditation Board
• lead to QTS in Wales
• enable the student to teach in a secondary setting through the medium of Welsh or teach Welsh as a subject

Student eligibility

To be eligible for an incentive grant, a student must:

• be undertaking an eligible programme in Wales, which commenced on or after 1 September but prior to 31 August as specified in the legal scheme
• qualify for support under Regulations made under section 22 of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 currently in force
• not already be a qualified teacher on commencement of study towards QTS
• not be employed to teach at a school or other institution as a teacher
• not be a participant in training organised under an employment-based teacher training scheme, including the Salaried PGCE
• meet the eligibility criteria for the QTS and induction payments 

Courses not eligible for this grant

• Students undertaking any employment-based teacher training scheme (this includes the ‘Salaried PGCE scheme’)
• Students undertaking training programmes which enable them to teach in the Post Compulsory Education and Training Sector (PGCE PCET)

Under this scheme an incentive grant of £5,000 is available to all students who meet the eligibility criteria.

The incentive payments totalling £5,000 will be made in 2 instalments:

• £2,500 in July or August on successful completion of their PGCE and the award of QTS (where a student is assessed by a resubmission exam board, payments will be made prior to 31 December)
• £2,500 on successful completion of induction in Wales

This scheme is administered by Welsh Government and on behalf of the Welsh Government by ITE partnerships. Please contact your ITE Partnership to check your eligibility, apply for the incentive, or if you have any queries.

Your ITE partnership will let you know whether you are eligible for an incentive. They will give you guidance on the application process and the registration documentation. The registration form asks you to confirm that you have read and understood the conditions of this incentive. If this confirmation is not received, payment cannot be made.

You must return the signed registration form to your ITE partnership. All registration documents submitted to ITE partnerships will be shared with Welsh Government. This enables payments to be made.

If you gained QTS prior to September 2023 you will need to apply directly to Welsh Government for this incentive. Please refer to the 2018 to 2022 guidance.  

QTS payment 

To get the QTS payment you must have:

• completed an eligible postgraduate ITE programme in Wales leading to QTS (on award of QTS) in accordance with the School Teachers Qualifications (Wales) Regulations 2012

Your ITE partnership are responsible for making the QTS payments. They will determine the exact payment date. Any issues should be directed to them.

If you fail to achieve QTS, you will not be entitled to receive any payments under this incentive. 

Final incentive payment

To get the final incentive payment you must meet all of the following criteria:

• you must have received the QTS payment
• you must have successfully completed induction in a Welsh-medium secondary school or in any maintained secondary school if teaching Welsh as a subject
• you must have been awarded an induction certificate
• you must claim this payment within one year of completing your induction period

Welsh Government are responsible for making the final incentive payment and will determine the exact payment date. They will contact you during your induction period to ensure that they have all the relevant details to process this grant payment. Any issues should be directed to ITEIncentives@gov.wales.

It is your responsibility to ensure you have made this claim within the allocated timeframe. 

If you leave a secondary postgraduate ITE programme before its completion and award of QTS, you will not be entitled to this incentive.

If you are:

• resuming an eligible programme
• starting an eligible programme, where entry has been deferred (suspended)

you will only remain eligible for the incentive grant if the deferment of your programme is no longer than one academic year.

Students who fail to achieve QTS will not be entitled to receive the QTS payment.

If you gained QTS prior to September 2023 you will need to apply directly to the Welsh Government for this incentive. Please refer to the 2018 to 2022 guidance.  

The Welsh Ministers have powers to recover grants paid, in whole or in part. They have discretion about whether to exercise those powers and will consider all cases on their merits.

Cases where these powers might be exercised by the Welsh Ministers will be where:

• the recipient has provided in, or in connection with, his or her application for a grant, information which is false or materially misleading
• there is evidence that the recipient had never intended to complete the programme or, having completed it, to enter teaching

Information which a student submits as part of their claim under the Iaith Athrawon Yfory Incentive scheme, is subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “FOIA”), the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (the “EIR”) the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (the “DPA”).

Students also acknowledge that the Welsh Government is responsible for determining in our 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
• to undertake checks for the purposes of preventing fraud and money laundering, and to verify your identity. These checks are required to process personal data about you to third-party fraud prevention agencies

Welsh Government is the data controller for the personal information it receives. Any personal data we collect will be managed in accordance with our privacy notice and our page 'Privacy notice: Welsh Government grants'.

The Welsh Government offers 3 incentive schemes for ITE students.

ITE partnerships will help you to check which of the schemes you are eligible for. You may be eligible for more than one scheme. Eligibility under one scheme does not impact your eligibility for other ITE incentive schemes. It is possible to receive grant funding under all 3 incentive schemes. Eligibility criteria for each individual scheme must be met.

You will need to complete an incentive registration form for each scheme you want to apply for. This confirms eligibility and enables payments to be made under the relevant scheme.

Welsh in Education Teacher Retention Bursary

 A £5000 bursary to support the retention of Welsh-medium teachers is available until 2028. This bursary is available to teachers who have been awarded QTS from August 2020 onwards. Eligibility criteria apply.

Tax

Incentive grants are not normally taxable for full-time students.

The final incentive payment may be taxable for those individuals in employment. 

You can seek advice on your own circumstances from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Student financial assistance

An incentive grant is not considered part of household income for student finance provisions. Grants should not be included when working out taxable unearned income.

You should seek advice from your student finance provider on your individual circumstances.

Student loan repayments

For full-time students the grant will not trigger student loan repayments.

For part-time students in employment, liability will depend on whether your work salary is high enough to trigger student loan repayments.

Student loan repayments may be triggered by the final incentive payment. Liability will depend on whether your work salary is high enough to trigger student loan repayments.

Effect on benefits

This will depend on your personal circumstances.

You should seek advice from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Effect on pensions

The incentive grant is not pensionable.

If you have any further questions, contact your ITE partnership.

If you have any further questions relating to the induction payment, contact ITEIncentives@gov.wales