From 1 April 2026 any proposal to establish, close, or significantly alter school sixth form provision in Wales’s maintained schools must be submitted to Medr for consideration and consultation.

Medr was established in August 2024, for the first time bringing the regulation and funding of different parts of tertiary education in Wales under one body. This brings with it a number of advantages, not least in ensuring that learners have access to a consistently high quality education whatever pathway they choose. The new approach does, however, require changes in order to better align different parts of the tertiary sector with each other.

If you have been involved in the review of local education provision or in planning changes to school structures, you will be aware that the process is complex, highly regulated, and dependent on coordination between multiple partners.

With the introduction of the Tertiary Education and Research Act (TERA), and publication of the revised Code on School Organisation (“the Code”) on 1 April 2026, Medr now has formal statutory role within school reorganisation of sixth form provision process. This means any proposal to establish, close, or significantly alter sixth form provision in Wales’s maintained schools must be submitted to Medr for consultation. This ensures that decisions relating to post‑16 education are informed, evidence‑based, and aligned with national priorities.

Our statutory role

Schedule 4 of TERA gives Medr clear legal responsibilities when it comes to changes affecting sixth forms. These responsibilities apply across all local authority maintained schools, as well as voluntary and foundation schools that operate sixth forms.

View Medr's local authority and school sixth forms website page

Under the legislation, Medr may require:

• Local authorities to bring forward proposals to open or close stand‑alone sixth form provision, or to expand or reduce existing sixth form capacity.
• Governing bodies of voluntary or foundation schools to propose changes to their sixth form offer where needed.

While these powers exist in legislation we do not expect to be in a position where the use of such interventions is anticipated.

Local authorities also have specific duties of their own. During the formal statutory consultation period for any proposal involving:

• establishing or closing a sixth form
• changing the medium (language) of instruction
• significantly expanding or reducing capacity

…they must consult Medr. This enables us to provide a formal response grounded in evidence, learner outcomes and the long‑term sustainability of Wales’s post‑16 system.
 
Supporting early engagement of sixth form proposals

While our formal role takes effect during statutory consultation, we strongly encourage local authorities to engage with us much earlier—at the initial thinking or exploratory stage.

This early dialogue helps us:

• Share evidence and constructive advice before proposals take shape
• Support the development of coherent and well‑designed options
• Build shared understanding between local priorities and our wider Strategic Plan
• Ensure that any future statutory response is informed, substantive and genuinely helpful

Although this early engagement is not part of the statutory process, it plays a vital part in strengthening collaboration and ensuring proposals are robust and learner‑focused from the outset.

Aligning proposals with Medr’s Strategic Plan

All proposals relating to sixth form reorganisation should show how they align with the priorities set out in our Strategic Plan.

By engaging early, local authorities can better understand how their plans fit within national ambitions for a coherent, high‑quality and sustainable post‑16 system across Wales. This alignment helps ensure that changes to provision support both local needs and system-wide improvement.

New framework guidance in development

To further support local authorities, we are currently developing new framework guidance—co‑created with stakeholders from across Wales. This framework will help shape thinking before proposals enter statutory consultation, ensuring they are:

• Aligned with Medr’s statutory duties and strategic objectives
• Grounded in strong, transparent evidence
• Designed to meet the long‑term needs of learners and communities
• Supportive of a coherent national post‑16 landscape

More details on this new guidance will be shared later this year.

If you’d like to discuss potential proposals or explore ideas at an early stage, the Medr team is always happy to help. Early conversations can make a meaningful difference in developing strong, future‑proofed sixth form provision for learners across Wales.

Introduction

1. This publication sets out the arrangements and timing for additional mainstream funding of £1,333,223.67 to be provided by Medr to further education (FE) institutions and £361,058.86 to Local Authorities (LA) to enable FE institutions and for Sixth Form schools via LAs to maintain pay parity for teaching staff. This will be done by increasing the unit rate of funding.

2. This has been allocated in the FY 2026-27 and relates to the remainder of AY 2025/26, 1 April 2026 to 31 July 2026. This additional funding will be paid in one full instalment in April 2026.

Additional funding amounts and timings

3. An FE mainstream allocation of £1,333,223.67 will be allocated to FE institutions via an increase in the unit rate in the FY 2026-27 and relates to AY 2025/26.

Further education institution	FE allocation
Adult Learning Wales	£25,307.33
Bridgend College	£68,036.33
Coleg Cambria	£163,334.00
Cardiff and Vale College	£166,054.00
Coleg Sir Gâr	£87,517.67
Coleg Gwent	£190,374.67
Coleg y Cymoedd	£142,011.00
Gower College Swansea	£115,963.33
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai	£146,918.67
The College Merthyr Tydfil	£43,185.00
NPTC Group of Colleges	£100,926.67
Pembrokeshire College	£52,691.33
St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College	£30,903.67
Total	£1,333,223.67

4. An LA mainstream allocation of £361,058.86 will be allocated to Local institutions via an increase in the unit rate in FY 2026-27 and relates to AY 2025/26 as shown in the table below.

Local Authority	LA allocation
Isle of Anglesey County Council	£8,912.00
Gwynedd Council	£13,356.57
Conwy County Borough Council	£18,398.29
Denbighshire County Council	£13,161.71
Flintshire County Council	£15,984.57
Wrexham County Borough Council	£3,957.71
Powys County Council	£15,254.29
Ceredigion County Council	£12,194.29
Pembrokeshire County Council	£10,161.71
Carmarthenshire County Council	£22,453.14
Swansea Council	£22,842.86
Neath Port Talbot Council	£7,714.86
Bridgend County Borough Council	£25,362.86
Vale of Glamorgan Council	£26,820.57
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council	£31,554.29
Cardiff Council	£57,464.56
Caerphilly County Borough Council	£13,115.43
Torfaen County Borough Council	£1,407.43
Monmouthshire County Council	£13,378.86
Newport City Council	£27,562.86
Total	£361,058.86

Introduction

1. This publication sets out the arrangements and timing for additional mainstream funding of £2,689,333.33 to be provided from Medr to further education (FE) institutions and £458,333.33 to local authorities (LA) for National Insurance contributions in financial year (FY) 2026-27.

2. The Welsh Government has allocated this additional funding to Medr in the FY 2026-27 for National Insurance contributions. Additional funding for National Insurance contributions will be paid in full in one instalment in April 2026, in the FY 2026-27, and relates to AY 2025/26.

Additional funding amounts and timings

3. An FE mainstream allocation of £2,689,333.33 will be allocated to FE institutions for National Insurance contributions for the AY 2025/26 in the FY 2026-27, as shown in the table below.

Further education institution	FE | Contribution towards increased NI costs
Adult Learning Wales	£37,849.23
Bridgend College	£148,258.02
Coleg Cambria	£367,888.29
Cardiff and Vale College	£315,000.70
Coleg Sir Gâr	£190,124.63
Coleg Gwent	£296,850.74
Coleg y Cymoedd	£213,624.47
Gower College Swansea	£261,722.03
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai	£375,083.97
The College Merthyr Tydfil	£59,551.88
NPTC Group of Colleges	£244,113.54
Pembrokeshire College	£123,341.98
St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College	£55,923.85
Total	£2,689,333.33

4. An LA mainstream allocation of £458,333.33 will be allocated to LA institutions for National Insurance contributions for the AY 2025/26 in the FY 2026-27, as shown in the table below.

Local Authority	FE | Contribution towards increased NI costs
Isle of Anglesey County Council	£11,338.33
Gwynedd Council	£17,221.00
Conwy County Borough Council	£23,599.67
Denbighshire County Council	£16,886.33
Flintshire County Council	£20,673.00
Wrexham County Borough Council	£4,986.00
Powys County Council	£19,868.33
Ceredigion County Council	£15,922.00
Pembrokeshire County Council	£13,125.00
Carmarthenshire County Council	£29,099.67
Swansea Council	£28,945.33
Neath Port Talbot Council	£9,643.33
Bridgend County Borough Council	£32,027.33
Vale of Glamorgan Council	£34,534.67
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council	£38,725.67
Cardiff Council	£72,651.67
Caerphilly County Borough Council	£16,113.33
Torfaen County Borough Council	£1,751.34
Monmouthshire County Council	£17,435.00
Newport City Council	£33,786.33
Total	£458,333.33

5. This funding relates to the period 1 April 2026 to 31 July 2026.This additional funding for National Insurance contributions for AY 2025/26 will be paid in FY 2026-27 in one full instalment in April 2026.

We are running a series of events for apprenticeship providers, employers, training professionals, and sector partners to feed into the design of the new Welsh Apprenticeship Programme.

The new Welsh Apprenticeship Programme will start on 1 August 2027.

Join us to find out more about the new apprenticeship design, join discussions, test key elements, and share feedback:

• Llandudno – 13 May
• Llandrindod Wells – 14 May
• Cardiff – 20 May

Register through Eventbrite

In September 2025, we held a 6-week consultation exercise that sought views from stakeholders, including training and tertiary education providers, industry representatives, employers, learners and local authorities, to help shape the new programme.

In February 2026 we reported on the outcome of the consultation, and on the key next steps in developing and implementing the new apprenticeship programme 2027.

The events

We are inviting apprenticeship providers, employers, training professionals, and sector partners to take part in a series of engagement events across Wales.

These sessions will test and refine the design of the new apprenticeship programme, ensuring it is responsive, resilient, and aligned with the needs of learners, employers, and the wider Welsh economy.

By taking part, you will help shape a programme that supports high‑quality learning, meaningful progression, and sustainable skills development for the future workforce.

Enquiries: [email protected]

Register through Eventbrite

Medr has today formally launched and published a new, cross-tertiary education regulatory system, the first of its kind in the UK.

This milestone is the product of extensive engagement across the tertiary education sector, including two formal consultation periods, and lays the foundations for a joined-up regulatory approach that strengthens learner engagement, drives best practice, and helps ensure value for public money across the sector.

The published regulatory system includes:

• Medr’s regulatory approach
• Statement of intervention powers
• The full regulatory framework, including conditions of registration or funding
• The Quality Framework for tertiary education
• The Learner Engagement Code
• A frequently asked questions document setting out responses to common queries raised during engagement
• A glossary of key terms

Associated materials outline how the system applies across different parts of the tertiary sector and sets clear expectations for both registered and funded providers in respect of a range of conditions.

Bethan Evans, Executive Director Regulation and Analysis at Medr said:

“Regulation can often feel procedural, but this cross-tertiary framework – the first of its kind in UK – will make a lasting, positive difference to learners across our tertiary education sectors.

“We’re very grateful for the insight and feedback offered by learners, providers and interested parties throughout the process to date and, while this marks an important milestone, it is by no means the end of the journey. The sector continues to evolve, and our regulatory approach will be under continuous review so that it can evolve with it.

“With the publication of this thorough and wide-ranging regulatory framework, the iterative journey towards a fairer, more consistent and outcome-focused tertiary education regulatory approach in Wales can now begin in earnest.”

Medr is developing an online application portal which will allow providers to submit the information needed in order to apply to become registered. The application process will open for providers shortly, and further information will be provided. A register, applicable to all providers of higher education, will then be operational from August.

Full details on what the new regulations mean for you or your education provider can be found on our website:

Medr's Regulatory Framework

Medr’s regulatory framework for tertiary education

1. This publication introduces the full and final suite of documents to support our new regulatory system, which begins to come into effect from 01 August 2026.

2. The Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 (‘The Act’) sets out the framework by which we will regulate tertiary education and training providers in Wales. This Regulatory Framework and the associated statutory documents are published to satisfy the following duties in the Act:

• 27 (5) Initial Registration Conditions
• 28 (7) General Ongoing Registration Conditions
• 40 (2) Supplementary provision about directions under section 39
• 50 (4) Quality Assurance Framework
• 81 (3) Statement on Intervention Functions
• 126 (6) Learner Protection Plans
• 129 (5) Learner Engagement Code

3. Other non-statutory documents, including a frequently asked questions (FAQs) document, explaining how the new system works in plain language, and a glossary, offering clear definitions of all regulatory and operational terms, are now available on the Medr website. Tertiary providers will be alerted to any changes to the documentation in the future, in addition to our statutory duties to consult under the Act.

Register of providers

4. Medr will engage with those providers of higher education that have expressed an interest in becoming registered. Those providers will be provided with access to an online application form, with eligible providers to be registered with effect from 1 August 2026.  

5. The Register for higher education providers will be viewable to the public in August 2026.

Further information

6. Any queries regarding this circular should be directed to [email protected].

Medr has a statutory duty to monitor the financial sustainability of tertiary education providers in Wales. This includes ensuring providers have credible plans in place to ensure their short-term financial viability and longer-term financial sustainability.

Today, we are publishing our most recent review of the financial sustainability of the higher education sector.

Based on published financial statements for the academic year to 2024-25 and latest forecasts up to 2027-28, the report provides detailed information at sector level on the operating position, cash balances, sources of income, expenditure, liquidity, cash flow, borrowing and capital expenditure.

The finances of higher education institutions Financial sustainability of the higher education sector in Wales, March 2026

This analysis builds on that previously published as part of the Welsh Government statistical article Outcomes for learners in post-16 education affected by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic: August 2020 to July 2021. It aims to provide an up to date picture of progression from Year 11 to tertiary education.

The Year 11 cohorts in this analysis are based on all learners enrolled in Year 11 in maintained secondary, middle and special schools in Wales. Figures for 2025/26 are provisional as they are based on in-year data.

Tertiary education is defined in this analysis as provision that is now funded and regulated by Medr. This encompasses publicly funded provision delivered by maintained school sixth forms, further education colleges and apprenticeship providers in Wales.

This is a change from the previous release where a slightly wider definition of tertiary education was used that included post-16 learning in maintained special schools and the Welsh Government’s Jobs Growth Wales+ / Traineeships employability programmes.

The analysis does not include tertiary destinations in independent schools, other independent or specialist learning providers, adult community learning (including that delivered by colleges), tertiary education outside of Wales or any other post-16 EOTAS (Educated Other Than at School) provision.

Main points

• The provisional proportion of learners progressing from Year 11 to tertiary education was 85% in 2025/26, unchanged from the previous 2 years.
• The number of learners progressing increased steadily between 2018/19 and 2024/25 before falling in 2025/26, in line with changes to Year 11 cohort sizes.
• Of the learners that progressed from Year 11 to tertiary education:
  • An increasing proportion are progressing to further education colleges, with a corresponding decrease in those progressing to sixth forms.
  • The proportion of learners studying at level 3 (including AS levels) continues to decrease.
• There are differences in progression between different groups of learners. The proportion progressing was higher for learners who are:
  • Female
  • Living in the least deprived neighbourhoods
  • Not eligible for Free School Meals
  • Not accessing special educational needs or additional learning needs provision
  • With Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh, or Black, Black Welsh, Black British, Caribbean or African backgrounds
  • Competent or fluent in their acquisition of English as an additional language
  • Attending Welsh medium schools in Year 11 or are fluent in Welsh.
• There was substantial variation in the type and level of tertiary education provision between different groups of learners and geographically.

Introduction

1. This publication sets out the arrangements and timing for additional funding of £4,000,000 to recognise increased participation in further educations institutions (FEI) and local authorities (LA) in the academic year (AY) 2025/26.

2. Welsh Government provided this funding as part of their 2025-26 budget and will be allocated to providers in the financial year 2025-26.

3. This funding will be paid in full in one instalment on 31 March 2026.

Rationale

4. The allocation of £4,000,000 was calculated on a pro-rate basis across the LAs and FEIs to reflect the delivery as reported by Local Authorities in December 2025 and the delivery recorded in the LLWR December 2025 freeze data.

Additional funding amounts and timings

5. An allocation of £3,642,212.57 will be allocated to FEIs for increased participation in the AY 2025/26, as shown in the table below.

Further education institutions	Further education | Additional support for mainstream funding
Bridgend College	£280,283.87
Cardiff and Vale College	£301,014.89
Coleg Cambria	£929,602.79
Coleg Gwent	£104,367.28
Coleg Sir Gâr	-£258,657.33
Coleg y Cymoedd	£357,784.78
Gower College Swansea	£226,639.89
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai	£988,585.74
Grŵp NPTC Group	£397,677.88
The College Merthyr Tydfil	£168,060.99
Pembrokeshire College	£34,632.66
St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College	£112,219.13
Total	£3,642,212.57

6. The reclaim for Coleg Sir Gâr is as a result of an adjustment to a previous allocation.

7. An allocation of £357,787.41 will be allocated to local authorities for increased participation for mainstream funding in AY 2025/26, as shown in the table below.

Local authority	Local authority | Additional support for mainstream funding
Isle of Anglesey County Council	£42,755.87
Cardiff Council	£132,748.79
Denbighshire County Council	£43,596.00
Monmouthshire County Council	£11,708.37
Neath Port Talbot Council	£16,602.54
Pembrokeshire County Council	£66,853.43
Swansea City and County Council	£23,449.58
Torfaen County Borough Council	£10,196.21
Vale of Glamorgan Council	£9,876.62
Total	£357,787.41

8. This funding relates to the period 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026. This additional funding to support increased participation for the AY 2025/26 will be paid in full in one instalment on 31 March 2026.

Introduction

1. Welsh Government have announced an additional £26m capital funding will be made available for allocation within the 2025-26 financial year. The funding can be allocated to expenditure incurred in the 2025/26 academic year, as well as financial commitments entered into by 31 July 2026 supported by contracts or purchase orders. For colleges, the additional money will help with increased participation particularly in vocation courses for example by expanding workshop provision. Previous funding has been used by universities to support projects that reduce their operating costs and enhance student and staff facilities. Capital funding cannot be used to support staff costs directly. However, savings generated by capital investments may bring some revenue savings that ease cost pressures. This additional funding includes £13m for higher education institutions and £13m for further education institutions.

Basis of capital funding allocations

2. The capital funding is allocated based on a formulaic approach and the allocations have been determined based on:

i) Higher education: student numbers. The number of students at an institution represents a reasonable proxy for the amount of estate and facilities required. The student numbers used for the initial allocation are the HESA Student Record Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) for all modes, levels and domiciles based on the 2023/24 academic year. A minimum allocation of £975,000 has been applied. Given its limited estate in Wales, the OU will have a minimum threshold set at 50% (£487,500) to contribute to projects that will benefit Welsh students. This is the same basis on which the £10m capital funding was allocated in October.

ii) Further education: 2025/26 total allocation. The initial full‑time allocation for the 2025/26 academic year has been determined using learner headcount and programme value information taken from the latest LLWR data and informed by data from PLASC. The additional capital allocation has been distributed on a pro rata basis, aligned to each provider’s share of the total allocation, based on learner headcount.

Allocations

3. The resulting allocations for each institution are provided in Annex A for further education and higher education institutions.

Confirmation of ability to spend

4. Given the limited timeframe to distribute this funding, in lieu of fully scoped plans we instead require institutions to confirm via email to [email protected] that they are able to utilise their allocation against relevant projects in the 2025/26 academic year. Please note that these must be developments within Wales (or in the case of digital, projects that will directly benefit Welsh students).

5. Should an institution foresee being unable to use their full allocation, they should notify Medr at the earliest opportunity and any residual funds will be reallocated to other institutions via the formulaic approach described previously.

Guidance

6. Guidance will follow this publication outlining the eligible spend, as will a template to report on expenditure.

Annual monitoring

7. A monitoring exercise will be undertaken in 2026 at a suitable date to ensure that the funding has been used as intended and to provide an update on the impact that the investment has had.

8. Institutions will be expected to provide a breakdown of the capital spend and detail any projects that the funding has contributed to.

Timetable

9. Medr will schedule payment of the allocated funds to institutions upon receipt of the above confirmation and on 31 March 2026.

10. The annual monitoring process will take place in 2026 at a suitable date.

Further information

11. For further information, contact [email protected].

Annex A

Additional higher education capital funding modelling 2025/26

Institution	2023/24 Student FTE	Allocations pro rata to (£): FTE	Percentage allocated to each institution FTE
University of South Wales	19,177	£1,986,656.20	15%
Aberystwyth University		£975,000	8%
Bangor University		£975,000	8%
Cardiff University	28,326	£2,934,453.95	23%
University of Wales Trinity Saint David	11,755	£1,217,768.35	9%
Swansea University	19,009	£1,969,252.10	15%
Cardiff Metropolitan University	10,578	£1,095,836.12	8%
Wrexham University		£975,000	8%
Open University in Wales	8,408	£871,033.28	7%
Total	97,253.00	£13,000,000.00	100%

Source: HESA student record 2023/24

• Student Numbers not used in calculation: HESA standard registration population, all modes, levels and domiciles.
• FTE’s used in calculation: HESA Session Population, all modes, levels and domiciles.
• Please note that rounding has been applied to FTE values following use in calculations.

Additional further education capital funding modelling 2025/26

Institution	2025/26 Allocation	Allocations pro rata to (£): FTE	Percentage allocated to each institution FTE
Bridgend College	21,257,267	£647,440.95	4.98%
Cardiff and Vale College	51,838,831	£1,578,875.68	12.15%
Coleg Cambria	51,831,161	£1,578,642.08	12.14%
Coleg Gwent	59,626,840	£1,816,078.14	13.97%
Coleg Sir Gâr	28,960,384	£882,057.82	6.79%
Coleg y Cymoedd	44,337,120	£1,350,393.11	10.39%
Gower College Swansea	36,295,608	£1,105,469.62	8.50%
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai	50,512,285	£1,538,472.55	11.83%
Grŵp NPTC Group	34,051,497	£1,037,119.85	7.98%
The College Merthyr Tydfil	13,503,613	£411,284.86	3.16%
Pembrokeshire College	16,837,610	£512,829.72	3.94%
St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College	9,656,971	£294,126.17	2.26%
Adult Learning Wales (ALW)	8,116,566	£247,209.45	1.90%
Total	426,825,753	£13,000,000.00	100%

Future of this publication

Medr intends to review whether this publication could be incorporated into our Students in higher education and Staff at higher education institutions publications as there is considerable overlap. We plan to speak to users to understand whether this can be done without impacting the use of the statistics while making more efficient use of resources.

If you would like to provide your thoughts on this and how you use this publication please contact us at HEStats@medr.cymru by 29 May 2026.

Main points

Students

Students are counted per enrolment, so if a student is enrolled on multiple courses in an academic year then they will be counted multiple times. The data includes enrolments at all Welsh providers that submit data to the HESA student record. This includes providers that are funded directly for higher education provision by Medr and providers in Wales that return data to HESA about specifically designated courses.

• The proportion of enrolments by students with a disability steadily increased from 14% in 2018/19 to 22% in 2024/25.
• The proportion of enrolments by students from the UK with an ethnic minority background increased from 12% in 2018/19 to 17% in 2022/23.
• The majority of enrolments were by female students. 57% of enrolments have been by female students each year since 2022/23.

Staff

The data about staff relates to staff at the eight universities in Wales who submit data to the HESA staff record. The Open University in Wales is not included as the data collected about Open University staff covers the entire United Kingdom and not Wales specifically.

Staff numbers are calculated using the full-person equivalent for staff at 1 December of the reporting year, for example 1 December 2024 for 2024/25. Staff on atypical contracts are not included in this report as they are not comparable to those on other contract types.

• From 2018/19 to 2024/25, the proportion of staff who had a disability steadily increased.
  • For academic staff the proportion increased from 5% in 2018/19 to 8% in 2024/25.
  • For non-academic staff the proportion increased from 7% in 2018/19 to 11% in 2024/25.
• From 2018/19 to 2024/25, the proportion of staff with an ethnic minority background increased.
  • For academic staff the proportion increased from 12% in 2018/19 to 20% in 2024/25.
  • For non-academic staff the proportion increased from 5% in 2018/19 to 7% in 2024/25.
• The majority of academic staff has historically been male. In 2024/25 there were still slightly more male academic staff (5,560 members of staff) than female (5,495), but both accounted for 50%. In comparison, 53% of academic staff were male in 2018/19.
• The majority of non-academic staff were female. 63% of non-academic staff were female in 2024/25, which is similar to earlier years.

Further information can be found in the full report and in the accompanying Power BI dashboard.

Main points

Apprenticeships

• The success rate of apprenticeships increased by 2 percentage points in 2024/25 to 77%, it remains lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Higher apprenticeships showed the strongest recovery in 2024/25.
• Among the larger sectors, there was an increased success rate in:
  • Management and professional;
  • Business administration;
  • Health care and public services.
• The only sectors to see the success rate fall were:
  • Construction;
  • Engineering.
• The success rate gap between learners in the most deprived areas and least deprived areas has closed to 2 percentage points.
• The success rate for learners with disabilities and/or learning difficulties was 6 percentage points lower than learners with no disability and/or learning difficulty.
• Apprenticeship activities completed bilingually and in English had similar outcomes.
• The success rate for older age groups increased, whereas the success rate for younger age groups stagnated.

Apprenticeship success rate by academic year

Figure 1: August 2015 to July 2025

Description: The apprenticeship success rate continues to recover post-pandemic. A gap still exists between the current success rate and pre-pandemic success rates.
(Data on StatsWales)

Adult community learning

• The completion rate for adult community learning activities increased from 95% in 2023/24 to 96% in 2024/25.
• The success rate for assessable adult community learning activities remained at 87% in 2024/25, the first time it has not increased post-pandemic.
• The sectors that saw the largest increase in overall success rates were:
  • History, Philosophy and Theology;
  • Construction, Planning and the Built Environment.
• Sectors that saw the largest fall in success rates were:
  • Independent Living Skills;
  • Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies.
• Learning delivered by local authorities via a franchise arrangement with a further education (FE) institution saw the largest increase in success rate, although it remained the lowest provision type.

Adult learning success rate by academic year

Figure 2: August 2015 to July 2025

Description: The adult community learning success rate stopped increasing for the first time post-pandemic. The completion rate has recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
(Data on StatsWales)