Education Workforce Council

School teacher

The number of registered school teachers has continued to fall year on year. Between 2011 and 2021, the numbers dropped by 10.3% (38,770 in 2011; 34,766 in 2021).

The majority are female (75.7%). There has been a gradual decrease in the proportion of male teachers from 28.1% in 2002 to 24.3% in 2021.

The age profile of school teachers remains balanced, with 45.0% under the age of 40 and 30.1% aged between 40 and 50.

1.3% of school teachers declared themselves as either Black, Asian or a minority ethnicity (BAME), and 91.6% White. (5.7% unknown).

63.0% declared their national identity as Welsh, and 22.8% as British. (5.4% unknown).

The trend of Welsh speaking school teachers (33.5%), or those who are able to work through the medium of Welsh (27.1%) has remained fairly static, with little variance year on year. (3.5% unknown in both). Around 20% of school teachers are employed in Welsh-medium schools.

In Wales, qualified teacher status is non age range or subject specific. Of the secondary school teachers that teach English, Mathematics or Welsh, 73.9%, 77.0% and 72.2% respectively are trained in the subject they teach. In the foundation subjects, around 80% of secondary practitioners are trained in the subjects they teach, except for Information Technology (42.2%).

School learning support workers

The number of registered school learning support workers has increased by 15.7% since 2017 to 38,668 in 2021.
A higher proportion (86.3%) are female in comparison to the other registration groups. The next highest is school teachers.

14.4% are under 25 years of age. This is considerably higher than school teachers, with 3.6% falling within this age range.

3.2% have declared their ethnicity as Black, Asian or a minority ethnicity, and 64.6% as White. In respect of national identity, 40.7% of school learning support workers identify as Welsh. (31.1 % unknown in both).

19.7% are able to speak Welsh and 16.7% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (31.1% and 31.4% unknown)

FE teacher

The number of FE teachers has increased since they first joined the register. However, this number fell by 2.2% to 6,605 between 2020 and 2021.

The gender split is more balanced than the other registrant groups: 59.6% are female, and 40.4% are male.

The FE workforce is older than the school workforce. 45.8% are aged 50 and over in comparison to 25.0% of school teachers and 40.2% of WBL practitioners.

74.2% of FE teachers declared their ethnicity as White. In respect of national identity, 43.9% identified as Welsh and 24.6% identified as British (20.2% unknown in both).

16.4% are fluent or fairly fluent Welsh speakers and 11.7% are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (20.3% unknown in both)

The highest proportion of FE teachers trained in the subject they teach are those teaching Religious Studies and History. 40% of these have qualifications in those subjects.

83.8% of FE teacher records include qualification information (16.2% are unknown). Of those practitioners, 73.8% have recorded a qualification at level 6 or above.

FE learning support workers

The number registered in the FE learning support worker category has increased since they first registered in 2017. It then fell by 3.0% between 2020 and 2021 to 5,243.

The majority of FE learning support workers are female (69.0%).

FE learning support workers are a younger workforce than FE teachers in that 63.2% are aged under 50 compared with 54.2% of FE teachers. 18.3% of FE learning support workers are aged under 30.

4.2% have declared their ethnicity as either Black, Asian or a minority ethnicity, and 77.7% as White.

In respect of national identity, 44.9% identified as Welsh and 26.1% as British. (15.9% and 15.8 % unknown).

15.2% are able to speak Welsh and 10.7% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (16.2% and 16.1% unknown).

WBL practitioner

The number registered in the WBL category has increased since 2018. However, between 2020 and 2021 there has been a decrease of 6.2% to 3,321 in 2021.

63.2% of WBL practitioners are female and 36.8% are male.

WBL practitioners have a more even distribution in age range with 8.9% under the age of 30, 12.7% aged 60 and over and the other age categories (30 to 39, 40 to 49 and 50 to 59) ranging from 24.3% to 27.5% each.

1.6% of WBL practitioners have declared their ethnicity as either Black, Asian or a minority ethnicity and 76.5% as White. This is similar to other registration categories. Welsh is the most popular declaration in relation to national identity with 45.5% (19.8% and 20.0% unknown).

13.1% of WBL practitioners who have made a declaration said that they are able to speak Welsh and 9.4% are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (18.6% and 18.8% unknown)

40.7% of WBL practitioners employed in a WBL establishment have their subject information populated. Of those recorded, the most taught subjects are Health and Social Care (13.3%), Business (13.8%), Skills for Work (14.2%).

71.3% of WBL practitioner records include qualification information. Of those, 47.6% have a qualification at level 5 or above.

Qualified youth workers and youth support workers

Youth workers and 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’. The numbers registered in the youth work sector has been relatively stable since 2018.

Like the other registration categories, the youth work sector is mostly female: 67.2% of youth workers and 66.1% of youth support workers.

The age profile of youth workers and youth support workers is balanced, with 24.2% and 21.6% respectively aged 50 and over.

3.1% of youth workers and 2.4% of youth support workers have declared their ethnicity as either Black, Asian or a minority ethnicity and 67.9% and 68.5% respectively as White. (27.7% and 27.0% unknown).

44.3% and 49.7% respectively have declared their national identity as Welsh, and 19.9% and 16.5% as British. (27.7% and 27.0% unknown).

4.6% of qualified youth workers and 6.1% of qualified youth support worker declared that they have a disability.

10.6% of youth workers are able to speak Welsh and 7.4% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh (26.1% and 26.6% unknown).

16.3% of youth support workers are able to speak Welsh and 12.4% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh (27.3% and 27.4% unknown).