Teacher training incentives boosted by £5,000 in shortage subjects

Payments to entice students to train as teachers in shortage subjects in Wales will be increased by £5,000 from September.

Incentives for prospective secondary school teachers to train in subjects including maths, Welsh and the sciences will be increased to £20,000.

Education Minister Anna Brychan said it was a first step on the way to matching the £30,000 offered to some teaching students in England.

While some education unions welcomed the move, one said it was a "sticking plaster and that it risked creating a "two-tier workforce".

Abby Cripps, a Welsh language teacher at Ysgol Gwynllyw in Torfaen said she thought it would help encourage more people to get into the profession.

"I think it shows that the government are willing to invest in teachers and see education as a very important part of our country.

"Hopefully it will bring in some more teachers who specialise in those subjects," she added.

Cripps received £15,000 while she was training and said it had helped with her studies but said teacher retention should also be a priority.

"It definitely takes the stress off while doing that year of teacher training.

"How we're going to keep [teachers] in the future is an added challenge."

Announcing the increase, Brychan said initial education providers had not been able to hit their targets in some subjects "for a considerable period".

She said the Welsh government would track the impact of increasing the incentives and hoped to see 150 additional teachers in the system by 2027-28.

But she said they would also look at issues which had an impact on keeping teaching in schools, including workload.

"Alongside improving conditions for teachers and professional development, it's vital that we have a sustainable workforce and encourage more people into teaching."

She added: "We want to harness the talent and skills we have here in Wales to achieve our ambitions for education, ensuring that the money not only supports people to train in Wales, but we retain those skills to benefit learners across Wales."

But NAHT Cymru's Laura Doel said the government should be focusing on the "fundamental challenges" in schools.

"You're going to have teachers coming into the profession who have been incentivised to do so, who are going to get more money than teachers who are already there.

"That's going to create a very, very unhealthy working environment.

"It's not fair. There will be teachers that are doing their initial teacher training now who are doing other subjects - subjects that we still need that are not going to benefit from this incentive."

Claire Armitstead, director of the Association of School and College Leaders Cymru welcomed the hike.

"This is a positive move which we hope will lead to more graduates joining the profession in the coming years, particularly in subjects where teacher shortages are currently being most keenly felt", she said.

"However, this alone is not going to solve the recruitment and retention crisis.

"We also need to look at ways to reduce workloads and tackle some of the other factors that lead to such high numbers of teachers leaving the profession after only a couple of years."