Welsh for adults
This page provides a summary of the key messages from our work in the sector during the academic year 2021-22. Click on the arrows for details of what’s going well and what needs to improve, along with links to resources for providers.
What’s going well
- Despite nearly all learning taking place online, providers succeed in creating close-knit, caring communities of learners.
- Nearly all learners enjoy their lessons. They practise and contribute to lessons, without fear of making mistakes, while improving their skills alongside learners from across the world.
- Providers offer effective support and guidance to learners, including learners with additional learning needs.
What needs to improve
- Not all providers in the sector have returned to offering learners the choice of some level of face-to-face provision. This does not meet the needs of the few learners who were unwilling or unable, often due to poor connectivity, to continue with their courses online.
What’s going well
- Teaching in two of the three providers inspected is very effective and supports many learners to make strong progress.
- Many tutors ensure that learners make increasing use of the Welsh language both inside and outside of formal sessions. As a result, many learners use these skills beneficially and integrate positively within Welsh-speaking communities and networks.
- Many tutors provide valuable and interesting context to learning through enriching learners’ knowledge of Welsh history and culture.
What needs to improve
- A few tutors, across providers, do not pay enough attention to correcting poor pronunciation and intonation.
- A very few tutors across providers do not encourage learners well enough to extend their answers to questions. This means that learners’ progress in speaking Welsh is slower than it could be. View resource.
What’s going well
- Learn Welsh providers play an important role in influencing the use and development of the Welsh language within their host institutions.
- Many of the providers inspected use research to improve teaching and learning in areas such as formal and informal learning methods that help learners to integrate into Welsh language communities and networks.
- The sector offers valuable continuous professional development to their tutors, for example to improve their understanding of how learners learn and acquire language or deliver online.
What needs to improve
- National data systems do not allow providers who have overlapping responsibility for the same geographical area to track the progress of learners. This prevents providers from making effective use of data to validate the standards and progress of learners who move between them.
- In one provider, monitoring and evaluation activities do not identify strengths and areas for improvement in teaching and learning well enough.