Annual Education Workforce Statistics
EWC Annual Education Workforce Statistics for Wales 2023
Key findings
Every year we publish a detailed breakdown of the education workforce in Wales. This covers a wide range of practitioners across the groups we register. Prior to May 2023 these were:
- teachers and learning support staff in school and further education (FE) settings
- qualified youth workers and youth support workers
- work-based learning (WBL) practitioners
Practitioners in the independent sector have been required to register with the EWC since May 2023. They are therefore not included in this publication, but will be included in future publications from 2024.
The statistics we produce come from our Register of Education Practitioners (the Register). The real-time Register provides detailed and comprehensive data on all registered groups.
As at 1 March 2023, there were 88,748 individuals registered with us.
Read the Annual Education Workforce Statistics for Wales 2023 .
How is our data different?
The data we provide is unique and is not available through any other organisation or body. For that reason, it should not be compared with other sources such as the Welsh Government’s School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC).
Our statistics differ in that we report on the whole education workforce in Wales. For the school sector in particular, unlike the SWAC, our data is more comprehensive. This is because it includes all supply teachers, peripatetic workers, and others providing education or training in a range of education settings. We also hold significant historic data – in the case of teachers, this is 20+ years. This enables us to provide extensive trend information.
We calculate the percentages quoted on ethnicity, national identity, and Welsh language from the total number of registrants. This includes those where the value is unknown. The percentage of ‘unknowns’ in each area is noted for completeness.
School teacher
The number of registered school teachers increased in 2023 from 2022 by 1.6% (35,837 in 2023, 35,256 in 2022). This is the second year on year increase since 2021.
The majority of school teachers are female (75.5%). The gender balance is stable with little change year on year.
The age profile of school teachers is balanced, with a good spread of teachers across the age ranges.
92.3% of school teachers declared their ethnicity as white and 1.7% declared a black, Asian, or minority ethnic group (4.7% unknown). In respect of national identity, 63.1% identify as Welsh and 23.9% as British (4.5% unknown).
As with the age range, there continues to be a good spread of teachers in each year grouping since gaining qualified teacher status (QTS). The number who gained QTS under six years has increased again (20.5% in 2023, 19.2% in 2021, 19.2% 2020).
The trend of Welsh speaking school teachers (33.2%), or those who are able to work through the medium of Welsh (26.5%), has remained fairly static with little year on year variance. The Welsh language ability of school teachers is unknown for 2.6%.
In Wales, QTS is non age range or subject specific. Of the secondary and middle school teachers that teach English, Mathematics, or Welsh, 75.2%, 78.0%, and 71.2% respectively are trained in the subject they teach. In the foundation subjects, with the exception of Information Technology (43.1%), secondary and middle school practitioners that are trained in the subject they teach ranges from 73.3% to 88.8%. This data varies little year on year.
From the 2023 data, retention within the workforce appears stable with 75.5% of school teachers still registered after 5 years and 57.1% after 10 years. Of those that do not retain registration after 5 years, 61% are aged 55 or over, and after 10 years, 48.4% are aged 55 and over. Unless ill-health benefits are granted, 55 is the minimum pension age for school teachers currently, rising to 57 from 2028.
School learning support workers
The number of registered school learning support workers has increased by 47.7% since 2017 (33,424) and 16.0% in the last year to 49,380 in 2023.
A higher proportion (85.5%) are female in comparison to the other registration groups. The next highest is school teachers (75.5%).
18.1% are under 25 years of age which is an increase from 16.2% in 2022. This is considerably higher than school teachers at 4.2%.
72.6% declared their ethnicity as white and 6.0% declared a black, Asian, or a minority ethnic group. In respect of national identity, 42.9% of school learning support workers identify as Welsh (20.4% and 20.3% unknown respectively). 19.9% are able to speak Welsh and 16.3% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh (15.0% and 15.1% unknown respectively).
From the 2023 data, it appears that retention in the workforce is significantly different from school teachers with 39% not retaining registration after 5 years, and 30.2% of those not continuing being under 30 years of age.
FE teacher
The number of registered FE teachers in 2023 (6,785) was 11.5% higher than in 2017 (6,083).
The gender split is more balanced in comparison to the school sector with 59.3% female and 40.7% male.
The FE workforce is older than the school workforce. 45.6% are aged 50 and over in comparison to 25.9% of school teachers.
76.2% of FE teachers declared their ethnicity as white and 4.2% declared a black, Asian, or minority ethnic group. In respect of national identity, 45.0% identified as Welsh and 26.4% as British (17.1% unknown in both ethnicity and national identity).
17.1% are fluent or fairly fluent Welsh speakers and 12.0% are able to work through the medium of Welsh (14.3% unknown in both).
84.7% of FE teacher records include qualification information (15.3% are unknown). Of those, 75.2% have recorded a qualification at level 6 or above.
From the 2023 data, 60.9% of FE teachers were still registered in the same category after 5 years. Of the 34.4% not retaining registration with the EWC, 47% were aged 55 and over.
FE learning support workers
The number registered in the FE learning support worker category has increased from 4,222 in 2017 to 6,182 in 2023 which is largely attributed to the number who now register in multiple categories of registration (3,948 of the 6,182) in order to be able to work across sectors.
The majority of FE learning support workers are female (68.6%) which is different to FE teachers where the gender is more balanced (59.3% female, 40.7% male).
FE learning support workers are a younger workforce than FE teachers in that 65.8% are aged under 50 compared with 54.4% of FE teachers. 21.3% of FE learning support workers are aged under 30.
79.7% of FE learning support workers declared their ethnicity as white and 7.2% declared a black, Asian, or a minority ethnic group. In respect of national identity, 43.4% identified as Welsh and 31.3% British (10.6% unknown).
15.2% are able to speak Welsh and 10.2% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh (8.7% and 7.5% unknown respectively).
42.6% of FE learning support workers have not retained registration after 5 years. Of those, 23.9% were under 30 years of age.
WBL practitioner
The number registered in the WBL category has remained consistent with 2021 and 2022.
63.3% of WBL practitioners are female and 36.6% are male.
Like school teachers, the WBL practitioner age range is balanced with a good spread of practitioners across the 30-60 age ranges.
81.5% of WBL practitioners declared their ethnicity white and 2.6% declared a black, Asian, or a minority ethnic group. In respect of national identity, 46.5% identified as Welsh and 29.0% as British (13.7% unknown).
14.3% of WBL practitioners who have made a declaration said that they are able to speak Welsh and 10.7% are able to work through the medium of Welsh (9.3% unknown in both)
77.5% of WBL practitioner records include qualification information. Of those, 51.2% have a qualification at level 5 or above.
45.6% of WBL practitioners remain registered in their category after 5 years.
Qualified youth workers
Youth workers are eligible to register with the EWC if they hold one of the mandatory qualifications listed in the Regulations. See Applying for registration. The numbers registered in the youth work sector has had little variation since 2018.
Like the other registration categories, the youth work sector is mostly female at 69.6%
The age profile of youth workers is balanced.
73.2% of youth workers declared their ethnicity as white and 3.1% declared a black, Asian, or a minority ethnic group (21.0% unknown).
49.7% have declared their national identity as Welsh, and 19.9% as British (21.0% unknown).
13.0% of youth workers are able to speak Welsh and 8.1% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh (14.5% and 14.8% unknown).
18.0% of youth support workers are able to speak Welsh and 13.5% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh (16.9% unknown in both).
62.9% of youth workers remain registered in their respective categories after 5 years.
Qualified Youth support workers
Youth support workers are eligible to register with the EWC if they hold one of the mandatory qualifications listed in the Regulations. See Applying for registration.
Like the other registration categories, the youth support work sector is mostly female at 66.1%.
The age profile of youth support workers is balanced.
74.4% of youth support declared their ethnicity as white and 2.7% respectively declared a black, Asian, or a minority ethnic group (20.2% unknown).
42.5% have declared their national identity as Welsh, and 19.2% as British (20.4% unknown).
18.0% of youth support workers are able to speak Welsh and 13.5% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh (16.9% unknown in both).
48.8% of youth support workers remain registered in their respective categories after 5 years.
Previous workforce statistics
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