Welsh For Adults
Early Insights 2024-2025
We held a full inspection of one Learn Welsh provider and visited five other Learn Welsh providers as part of our first longitudinal themed inspection. The themed inspection evaluated the sector’s extensive Work Welsh provision that is co-ordinated by the National Centre for Learning Welsh and delivered by Learn Welsh providers. The aim of the Work Welsh programme is, through flexible and fully funded training to employers, to strengthen and grow Welsh language skills in workplaces and key sectors across Wales.
Teaching and learning
Teaching in the sector is well designed and enables learners to successfully acquire language skills that are used naturally in personal, social and work-based contexts.
What’s going well
- Most tutors have high expectations of their learners. They support learners to develop their language skills, particularly by extending their speaking skills and encouraging them to create language independently. As a result, many learners make strong progress.
- Most learners are highly motivated and participate positively. They enjoy their sessions and develop positive attitudes to learning and the benefits of learning Welsh and bilingualism.
- In the majority of sessions, tutors adapt and tailor sessions to meet the professional and social needs of learners.
- In Work Welsh programmes, the link between teaching and learning and linguistic planning is at its best when full-time specialist tutors work strategically within specific sectors such as health, sports and local authorities.
- Learners make strongest progress towards successfully increasing and normalising their use of Welsh in the workplace when Work Welsh provision strategically focuses on learners at intermediate level and above or fluent speakers who lack confidence and are reluctant to use their Welsh in work-based contexts.
What needs to improve
- In a minority of Work Welsh lessons, tutors do not tailor the course content effectively and consistently enough to ensure that it is sufficiently relevant to learners’ work-related needs.
- A majority of learners on Work Welsh programmes state that their employers do not support them well enough to use their Welsh language skills in the workplace.
Well-being, care, support and guidance
Tutors and providers ensure that learners feel included and supported in their learning. The financial support available for learners on mainstream and the free of charge Work Welsh provision is successful in reducing financial barriers to prospective learners.
What’s going well
- Nearly all tutors ensure a positive, inclusive and stimulating environment.
- Providers offer valuable guidance and support to promote learners’ well-being and personal development.
- There is strong support for learners who need financial support, including contributions towards the cost of childcare, travel and technical equipment. No mainstream learners pay the full fee in the Learn Welsh provider and Work Welsh schemes are free of charge to employers and employees.
What needs to improve
- None.
Leading and improving
Leaders, both nationally and locally, have a clear shared vision as to the purpose of their work and their contribution towards achieving the policy aims of Welsh Government to increase the number of active Welsh speakers in personal and professional contexts.
What’s going well
- Leaders in the Learn Welsh provider monitor performance and assure quality effectively which has a positive effect on teaching and learning. They work diligently with the senior managers of the host institution to support their language planning and training both internally and externally.
- Leaders of the National Centre for Learning Welsh demonstrate an innovative vision in the delivery and development of the Work Welsh scheme. They work very effectively with employers, providers and stakeholders to expand and improve the scheme’s impact.
- The growing demand for Work Welsh provision demonstrates that it is a cornerstone in linguistic planning initiatives to grow and normalise the use of Welsh in key sectors.
What needs to improve
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The short-term, individual project nature of Work Welsh funding from Welsh Government is challenging for managers nationally and locally in terms of ensuring that there is secure employment for staff and that strategic planning is as effective as it could be.
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Procedures to measure the effect of Work Welsh provision on changing language behaviour are not yet fully developed.
Overview of recommendations from inspections
The Learn Welsh provider inspected was given two recommendations:
- Ensure consistency in the good practice of supporting learners to improve their pronunciation.
- Continue to develop the provider’s strategic role to contribute fully to language planning and training within the University of South Wales.
Recommendations from the themed inspection
- Continue to work with Learn Welsh providers to ensure that tutors tailor courses appropriately for the purposes of specific groups of learners and their workplaces and are aware of all of the support and resources available to learners and their employers.
- Work with Learn Welsh providers and employers to plan staff’s linguistic development purposefully so that there is practical support for them to attend lessons, without increasing their workload, and to ensure that they are given meaningful opportunities to use their skills in the workplace.
- Jointly with the Welsh Government, conduct research into developing a delivery and funding model that supports long-term plans and prioritises post-intermediate learners and speakers who lack confidence.
- Continue to develop methods of measuring the effect of provision on changing the linguistic behaviour of individuals within their workplaces.