The Education Workforce Council (EWC) has today (5 September 2023) published its latest data on the education workforce in Wales.

The independent, professional regulator’s Annual Education Workforce Statistics for Wales 2023 provides its most comprehensive set of data to date, covering over 88,000 registered practitioners across schools, further education (FE), work-based learning, and youth work in Wales.

The data is derived from the EWC’s Register of Education Practitioners and provides valuable insights into the make-up of the education workforce such as age, ethnicity, and gender, as well as qualifications and subjects.

In this year’s report, all categories saw an increase in registrant numbers. However, of particular note was the increase in registered school teachers (1.6%), and the significant increase in registered school learning support workers (16%).

For the first time this year, the EWC also reported on the area of retention in each of the registrant groups.

EWC Chief Executive, Hayden Llewellyn said “We understand that retention in the education workforce professions is of particular interest to our colleagues and we are pleased to be able to share the findings from our comprehensive set of data.

“Although our data shows varying levels of retention across the registrant groups, it is positive to see that retention in the school teacher category remains healthy with over 75% still registered after five years.

“We are hopeful that this new data, along with our other data sets, will continue to drive the discussion and policy position around important education workforce topics including recruitment, retention, and work load.”

Further key findings, along with the full Annual Education Workforce Statistics for Wales 2023, are available to read via the EWC website.