Since launching in February 2022, Taith - Wales’ international learning exchange programme - has awarded funding to allow over 11,000 people to learn, study and volunteer all over the world, the Welsh government has announced.
Taith came into being after the UK government’s controversial decision to withdraw from the Erasmus+ scheme, the European Union student exchange programme, following Brexit.
The UK government set up the Turing Scheme - which is open to all parts of the UK - as a replacement but in a joint statement, issued in January 2021, the Welsh and Scottish governments described the Turing Scheme as “a lesser imitation of the real thing”.
The Welsh government then announced in March 2021 that it would spend £65 million between 2022 and 2026 on a new “international learning exchange” to ”fill the gaps” left by Turing and enable Welsh institutions to continue with the type of exchanges that took place under Erasmus+.
The Scottish government has also said it will introduce a scheme to replace Erasmus, but has been criticised for failing to deliver.
However, in the programme for government 2023-24, launched on 5 September, the Scottish government reiterated this commitment, saying it would launch “a new Scottish Education Exchange Programme - building on an initial test and learn project that we are delivering in 2023-24”.
During last week’s meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee, education secretary Jenny Gilruth said the programme would “not be able to replicate the full benefits of Erasmus” and would be “much smaller in scale” but that the plan was to “build on an initial test approach that we are developing and delivering this year”.
She added: “It is really important that we deliver on this outcome, because I worry about the cohort of young people who have been deprived of such opportunities.”
Turing Scheme
Schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - as well as colleges and universities - can apply to the Turing Scheme.
Figures for the academic year 2022-23, last updated in April, show that 159 UK schools applied for funding via the Turing Scheme last year, including nine from Scotland, three from Wales and one from Northern Ireland. Ultimately, the Northern Ireland application was unsuccessful, meaning no Northern Irish schools received funding in 2022-23, according to the data.
Three schools in Scotland received Turing funding, amounting to £562,186, and one in Wales, amounting to £122,011.
English schools had 93 applications approved and received almost £7 million via the scheme.
Since its launch in February last year, the Welsh government says Taith has enabled: opportunities for over 11,000 people to take part in transformative learning exchange trips; exchanges between Wales and more than 90 countries; and 142 projects involving more than 150 organisations from every local authority in Wales.
Taith funding for schools
One group of young people who have benefitted from Taith funding are pupils from Oak Field Primary School in Barry, who travelled to Murcia in Spain to take part in a range of educational and confidence-building activities alongside their Spanish peers.
Teacher Kelly Bladon applied for the funding, which enabled 30 children aged 9-11 to take part. For many, it was the first time they had left Wales.
She said: “This trip was about making sure the pupils have aspirations for life, because how can you aspire to something that you’ve never experienced?”
Education minister Jeremy Miles said: “Taith is about transformative opportunities for young people to build confidence, broaden their horizons and grow their aspirations. The impact on those from underrepresented groups is often the highest, and the change we see in them the greatest.”
Applications for the next round of Taith funding open on Friday 5 October. To find out more click here.
