A £5,000 golden hello is being offered to attract more people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds into teaching in Wales. The Ethnic Minority Incentive Scheme, announced on Monday, March 13 aims to help make the profession more diverse.
Currently less than 2% of Wales’ teaching workforce are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. Under the scheme £2,500 is available to those eligible when they get their Qualified Teacher Status and a final payment of £2,500 once they complete their induction.
The scheme is one of three incentives currently available to eligible student teachers, a total of £25,000 is available to those that meet the requirements of all three schemes.
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The other two teaching incentives schemes are:
- The Priority Subject Incentive Scheme: £15,000 for those undertaking secondary subject specialism most needed in the teaching workforce.
- The Iaith Athrawon Yfory: £5,000 for studying to teach secondary subjects through the medium of Welsh.
Announcing the third package Education Minister Jeremy Miles said: “This incentive is an important part of the work we are doing to attract more Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic applicants into the teaching profession. Currently less than 2% of our teaching workforce are from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background. That simply isn’t good enough.
“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 new 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 other work the Welsh Government is undertaking as part of the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan. All the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Partnerships in Wales have developed recruitment plans designed to attract ethnic minority students onto 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. Working with them is a group of “community mentors” who use their experiences of racism in education, recruitment, employment, marketing and leadership to help increase diversity in the teaching profession.
One of the mentors, Khudeza Siddika, who is based at Swansea University, said: “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 underrepresented backgrounds to join the profession and be part of the wider changes taking place in education right now.”
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