In March 2026, the Welsh Government published their Strategic Education Workforce Plan (SEWP), outlining actions to strengthen Wales’ education workforce. Acknowledging the range of challenges facing the sector, including the recruitment and retention of teachers, concerns about teacher wellbeing and increasingly complex learner needs, the SEWP highlights professional learning as crucial to the development and professionalism of the teaching workforce in Wales.
To support efforts to strengthen professional learning provision for early-career teachers (ECTs), the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) was commissioned in 2025 by the Welsh Government to explore international approaches to professional learning for early career teachers in contexts similar to Wales.
To do this, WCPP commissioned international experts to produce case studies on professional learning for ECTs in Australia, the Basque Country, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, and Singapore. To further explore these international approaches and their implications for Wales, WCPP also hosted two closed workshops with the international experts, Welsh Government officials, and key stakeholders, including Dysgu.
The case studies are not intended to provide comprehensive accounts of professional learning in each country or region, nor to offer models for direct replication in Wales. Instead, they highlight key features and approaches to supporting early career teachers that may inform reflection on the Welsh context and the future development of policy and practice.
Despite the diversity of contexts, several shared principles that are likely to contribute to an effective professional learning system were identified across the case studies and workshops:
- A ‘continuum’ of professional learning: Professional learning is most effective when viewed as a continuum that begins during Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and continues throughout the early career phase and beyond.
- System-level structures that enable local flexibility: Several systems combine national or regional scaffolding, including frameworks, standards, guidance, resources and capacity-building infrastructure, with locally delivered programmes shaped by schools, local authorities and professional networks.
- Practice-based learning: Professional learning is most consistently associated with routines grounded in classroom practice, including observation, feedback, co-planning, structured reflection and enquiry cycles, rather than relying primarily on isolated training events.
- Adopting an asset-based view of ECTs: Moving from a deficit-based perspective towards an asset-based view of early career teachers, and recognising the contributions they make to school communities, may help ECTs feel more valued and better supported.
In addition to these shared principles, a number of specific practices that may be worthy of consideration in Wales were highlighted, including:
- Paid and trained mentors;
- Collaborative models;
- Structured reflection; and
- Multilingual professional learning.
Collectively, these principles and practices may offer valuable insights for strengthening effective professional learning in Wales. These findings are presented in our published report and policy brief. We have also published two expert think pieces authored by Wales-based expert advisers for this project. Professor Alma Harris and Dr Alexandra Morgan reflect on the case studies and considered how Wales might strengthen its approach to professional learning for early career teachers.
