Welsh for adults – Adroddiad Blynyddol | Annual Report
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Welsh for adults

Early Insights 2025-2026

We inspected one Learn Welsh provider and visited five other Learn Welsh providers as part of our second longitudinal themed inspection. The themed inspection evaluated the National Centre for Learning Welsh’s Welsh in the education workforce programme, which aims to support schools and local authorities to increase Welsh-medium education and strengthen Welsh language provision by developing practitioners’ Welsh language skills and teaching methodologies. In a few cases, teaching did not support learners well enough to recall prior learning, develop independence or understand how to improve their work.

Teaching and learning

Teaching across the sector is designed effectively and enables learners to develop language skills successfully, using them naturally in personal, social and professional contexts.

What’s going well

  • Learners make good progress in their Welsh skills and develop confidence to use the language in a variety of contexts.
  • Strong relationships between tutors and learners, along with effective teaching and planning, support successful learning.
  • Social and informal activities encourage many learners to use Welsh both inside and outside the classroom.
  • In Welsh in the education workforce programmes most tutors provide effective teaching that supports learners to make good progress and develop confidence in their Welsh.
  • Language acquisition strategies and contextualisation of learning are notable strengths.

What needs to improve

  • A few tutors do not provide sufficiently deliberate opportunities for learners to recall previous knowledge, which slows down the progress of a few learners over time.
  • In the less effective practices, some tutors do not use teaching methods that support learners to develop independently enough, relying too much on translation into English.
  • In Welsh in the education workforce programmes, aspects of the effective Welsh for adults language acquisition methodology is not yet applied consistently enough to maximise progress of practitioners as independent speakers and develop their understanding and use of effective language pedagogy in their own teaching.

Well-being, care, support and guidance

Tutors and providers ensure that learners feel included and supported throughout their learning journey. The financial support available to learners on mainstream courses provision helps significantly to reduce the financial barriers faced by prospective learners.

What’s going well

  • Learners enjoy their learning experiences and feel safe, respected and effectively supported.
  • Providers offers effective guidance, support and progression arrangements that meet the diverse needs of learners.
  • The provision successfully promotes inclusion, learner voice and safeguarding.

What needs to improve

  • The individual Learn Welsh provider inspected does not consistently inform learners how their feedback has improved provision.
  • Arrangements to support education workforce practitioners to sustain their progress after completing a course vary considerably between schools and local authorities.

Leading and improving

Leaders at both national and local levels have a clear, shared understanding of the purpose of their work and their role in supporting the Welsh Government’s policy aims to increase the number of active Welsh speakers in personal and workplace settings.

What’s going well

  • Leaders provide clear strategic direction and plan effectively to meet priorities and develop the Welsh language.
  • The wide range of provision and supplementary learning opportunities support recruitment, progression and increased use of Welsh.
  • Quality, collaboration and professional development processes contribute to continuous improvement and an inclusive culture.
  • Robust quality assurance partnerships and arrangements support continuous improvement.
  • Flexible delivery models help to meet local needs and ensure accessibility.

What needs to improve

  • In one provider, senior managers’ understanding and use of data to analyse trends and strengthen purposeful strategic planning.
  • The use of data to evaluate the longer-term impact of the Welsh in the education workforce provision on practitioners’ use of Welsh and ultimately their pupils.

Overview of recommendations from inspections

  1. Promote and embed the sector’s most effective practices to ensure that the quality of teaching by all tutors is consistently high.
  2. Refine self-evaluation processes to prioritise areas for improvement strategically.
  3. Improve senior managers’ understanding and use of data to analyse trends and strengthen purposeful strategic planning.

Recommendations from the thematic inspection

  1. Standardise the use of effective Welsh for Adults pedagogy and methodology across the provision to support practitioners to acquire Welsh successfully and use it with increasing confidence in their own teaching with their pupils.
  2. In partnership with the Welsh Government, develop a strategic and effective aftercare system to support practitioners to use their language skills.
  3. Continue to work strategically with local authorities to develop the offer for the statutory education workforce, and develop methods for measuring the impact of the provision on practitioners and their pupils.
  4. Work with the Welsh Government to develop a funding model that supports long-term planning, including a funding system to release practitioners to learn Welsh.