Education Workforce Council

School teacher

The number of registered school teachers increased in 2022 from 2021 by 1.4% (35,256 in 2022; 34,766 in 2021). This is the first year on year increase since 2011.

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.

92.0% of school teachers declared their ethnicity as White and 1.5% declared a Black, Asian or minority ethnic group. (5.2% unknown). In respect of national identity, 63.0% identify as Welsh and 23.6% as British. (4.9% unknown).

As with the age range, there is a good spread of teachers in each year grouping since gaining Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). There is a slight increase in the number who gained QTS under 6 years ago (19.9% in 2022) largely due to an increase in training numbers.

The trend of Welsh speaking school teachers (33.2%), or those who are able to work through the medium of Welsh (26.6%) has remained fairly static, with little variance year on year. The Welsh language ability of school teachers is unknown for 2.8%.

In Wales, qualified teacher status is non age range or subject specific. Of the secondary and middle school teachers that teach English, Mathematics or Welsh, 75.3%, 77.7% and 71.7% 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 88.9%. This data varies little year on year.

School learning support workers

The number of registered school learning support workers has increased by 27.4% since 2017 and 10.1% in the last year to 42,585 in 2022.

A higher proportion (85.9%) are female in comparison to the other registration groups. The next highest is school teachers.

16.2% are under 25 years of age which is an increase from 14.4% in 2021. This is considerably higher than school teachers, with 4.1% falling within this age range.

69.0% declared their ethnicity as White and 4.1% declared a Black, Asian or a minority ethnic group. In respect of national identity, 42.2% of school learning support workers identify as Welsh. (25.8% unknown in both ethnicity and national identity). 19.9% are able to speak Welsh and 16.6% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (22.2% and 22.4% unknown respectively).

FE teacher

The number of registered FE teachers in 2022 (6,702) was 5.4% higher than in 2016 (6,358).

The gender split is different to the other registrant groups with a higher proportion of males: 59.6% female; 40.4% male.

The FE workforce is older than the school workforce. 45.6% are aged 50 and over in comparison to 25.3% of school teachers.

75.4% of FE teachers declared their ethnicity as White and 3.6% declared a Black, Asian or minority ethnic group. In respect of national identity, 44.3% identified as Welsh and 25.9% as British. (18.5% unknown in both ethnicity and national identity).

16.7% are fluent or fairly fluent Welsh speakers and 11.8% are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (15.6% unknown in both).

84.8% of FE teacher records include qualification information (15.2% are unknown). Of those, 74.7% 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 from 4,222 in 2017 to 5,556 in 2022 which is largely attributed to the number who now register in multiple categories of registration (3,564 of the 5,556) in order to be able to work across sectors.

The majority of FE learning support workers are female (68.8%) which is different to FE teachers where the gender is more balanced. (59.6% female; 40.4% male).

FE learning support workers are a younger workforce than FE teachers in that 64.2% are aged under 50 compared with 54.4% of FE teachers. 19.7% of FE learning support workers are aged under 30.

79.1% of FE learning support workers declared their ethnicity as White and 5.1% declared a Black, Asian or a minority ethnic group. In respect of national identity, 44.6% identified as Welsh and 28.9% British. (13.4% unknown).

14.8% are able to speak Welsh and 10.2% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (11.4% and 11.3% unknown respectively).

WBL practitioner

The number registered in the WBL category has remained consistent with 2021.

63.6% of WBL practitioners are female and 36.4% are male.

Like school teachers, the WBL practitioner age range is balanced, with a good spread of practitioners across the 30-60 age ranges.

78.9% of WBL practitioners declared their ethnicity White and 2.0% declared a Black, Asian or a minority ethnic group. In respect of national identity, 46.1% identified as Welsh and 26.2% British. (16.9% unknown).

13.0% of WBL practitioners who have made a declaration said that they are able to speak Welsh and 9.7% are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (11.2% and 11.3% unknown respectively)

79.1% of WBL practitioner records include qualification information. Of those, 52.1% 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 had little variation since 2018.

Like the other registration categories, the youth work sector is mostly female: 67.3% of youth workers and 66.9% of youth support workers.

The age profile of youth workers and youth support workers is balanced.
69.2% of youth workers and 70.9% of youth support declared their ethnicity as White and 3.8% and 2.4% respectively declared a Black, Asian or a minority ethnic group (25.9% and 24.3% unknown).

44.7% and 49.6% respectively have declared their national identity as Welsh, and 21.4% and 19.4% as British. (25.9% and 24.3% unknown).

10.6% of youth workers are able to speak Welsh and 8.0% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (19.5% and 19.8% unknown).

15.5% of youth support workers are able to speak Welsh and 11.7% have declared that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh. (21.0% unknown in both).