The Welsh government has officially launched an incentive to attract more people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds into teaching.
The Ethnic Minority Incentive Scheme provides up to £5,000 to eligible individuals in a bid to ensure the education workforce reflects Wales’ diversity.
A total of £5,000 is available to eligible BAME student teachers. A first instalment of £2,500 is available on award of qualified teacher status and a final payment of £2,500 once induction is completed.
The scheme is one of three incentives currently available to eligible student teachers: £15,000 is available through the priority subject incentive scheme and £5,000 is available for studying to teach secondary subjects through the medium of Welsh.
Minister for education and Welsh language Jeremy Miles said that less than 2 per cent of the teaching workforce in Wales is from a BAME background and that “simply isn’t good enough”.
He added: “I am committed to increasing representation within our education workforce. Our young people need to recognise themselves and their own experiences within their leaders.
“We are moving into an exciting era with the roll-out of our new curriculum and this incentive will help ensure the diversity of Wales is better reflected.”
The scheme is part of the broader work the Welsh government is undertaking as part of the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan.
Alongside the incentive, all initial teacher education (ITE) partnerships have developed recruitment plans designed to attract ethnic minority students on to teaching programmes. The partnerships are based at Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Swansea University, University of South Wales, University Wales Trinity St David and the Open University.
Supporting the partnerships are community mentors who use their knowledge and lived experience of the differential impact of racism within education, recruitment, employment, marketing and leadership to increase diversity in the teaching profession.
One of the mentors, Khudeza Siddika, who is based at Swansea University, said: “The new incentive demonstrates the Welsh government’s commitment to building a more diverse workforce. Individuals who enter teaching will find that schools are making strides towards becoming anti-racist organisations, with actions such as embedding black history into the curriculum.
“I hope this incentive will encourage talented, passionate individuals from under-represented backgrounds to join the profession and be part of the wider changes taking place in education right now.”
More information on the scheme can be found here.
