Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:33 pm on 17 March 2021.
Well, Suzy, I'm grateful for your acknowledgement that the Welsh Government has introduced new secondary legislation that allows teachers from across the world to enter into a process, with our Education Workforce Council, to be accredited to teach in this country. I believe those first applicants are already in process, including a new would-be maths teacher who qualified in the United States, who is very keen to take up a role here in one of our secondary schools in the capital.
With regard to ITE, we have reformed initial teacher education to ensure that it gives our teachers the best possible start in a professional career. And we have recognised that the more traditional routes perhaps were putting off those people that had something very valuable to offer our children and young people, but the traditional routes were not appropriate to them. And that's why we've worked with our partners in the Open University, for instance, to develop a distance learning part-time route to qualified teacher status. That makes it much easier, especially in areas of Wales where you and I live, where, actually, accessing a university on a full-time basis is really challenging. And I'm delighted to say that we have seen good and strong recruitment to that part-time distance learning route that is now offered by the Open University.