Initial teacher education: September 2021 to August 2022

Information about students training to become teachers on courses of initial teacher education (ITE) that lead to qualified teacher status for September 2021 to August 2022.

Data for 2020/21 has been revised due to errors identified in the data related to allocations, and the number of students learning to teach in Welsh. Revised figures have been included in the ‘Initial teacher education: September 2021 to August 2022' release and accompanying StatsWales tables. Please note that figures in the 'Initial teacher education: September 2020 to August 2021' release have not been updated.

The most recent data in this update is academic year 2021/22. It covers student teachers at universities in Wales and also students from Wales studying across the UK.

For 2021/22, 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, 2012/13 to 2021/22

Description of Figure 1: A line chart showing that entrants for primary school surpassed allocations for the second consecutive year, while entrants for secondary school were lower than allocations for the eighth consecutive year.

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

Main points

There were 1,610 entrants to ITE courses in Wales in 2021/22; 935 on primary school courses and 675 on secondary school courses.
Although the number of entrants for secondary ITE courses in Wales for 2021/22 was lower than it was in 2020/21, entrants in 2021/22 were still higher than they were for every year between 2015/16 and 2019/20.
The number of entrants to primary school ITE courses in Wales was 20% higher than the allocations in 2021/22.
The number of entrants to secondary school ITE courses in Wales was 34% lower than the allocations in 2021/22.
The number of first year ITE students in Wales training to be able to teach in Welsh was 4% lower than it was in 2020/21, standing at 325 students in 2021/22. However, this accounts for 20% of the total number of first year ITE students in Wales, the same proportion as in 2020/21
Mathematics, Biology and Welsh were the most common priority subjects for entrants to secondary school ITE courses in Wales.
5% of new ITE students in Wales whose ethnicity was known were from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic group in 2021/22, the same as in 2020/21
84% of new ITE students training in Wales were living in Wales before they started their degree.

Reports