Celebrating 2022 and looking forward to a prosperous 2023

Message from our Chief Executive, Ian Morgan As we come to the end of a particularly busy Autumn term, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your teams for all the professionalism, commitment, and hard work you have demonstrated throughout the year.

Effective collaboration between WJEC and schools and colleges has been hugely important again this year, and amongst our proudest achievements was the successful return to exams for the first time since 2019. It’s this shared commitment to providing learners with the opportunity to show what they know, understand, and can do, that continues to ensure our young people are able to progress to further education, training, and employment.

We have also marked several other milestones this year including the approval of our Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales qualification. We are grateful to the teaching community for their support and are pleased to see the positive feedback from schools and colleges who are preparing to deliver this new qualification from September 2023.

Our teams have also been busy supporting schools and colleges as they began delivering our new suite of Level 1 / 2 Vocational Qualifications. Enhancing our provision of vocational qualifications is important to us, and work is well underway to expand our Level 3 offering in the future.

This year also signals a period of change within WJEC, as we see Elaine Carlile, our Director of Qualifications, Assessment and Responsible Officer, leave the organisation after more than 15 years of dedicated service. On behalf of everyone at WJEC, I would like to thank Elaine for her exceptional work, and would like to congratulate Richard Harry, our current Assistant Director (Standards, Processing & Research) who will be taking over the role in January.

And finally, following a 2-year absence due to the pandemic, we celebrated the much-awaited return of our annual Innovation Awards. The awards, kindly sponsored by the Welsh Government, celebrates the most inventive projects created by Design & Technology learners across Wales. We were overwhelmed by the quality of entries, which guarantees a bright future for Welsh design and innovation.

As we look to 2023, Qualifications Wales has already confirmed that learners taking assessments will be given advance information to assist in their learning and revision. Our teams are finalising these materials, which will be published in early February, and schools and colleges will be notified once they are available.

It’s also important that we look ahead to our role in supporting Qualifications Wales’ Qualified for the Future initiative. Following the outcomes of their consultation, which will be published next year, our subject teams will start development work for a new suite of GCSEs. Throughout this process, we will be looking for feedback from our stakeholders and will be engaging with the teaching community to ensure Wales’ qualifications continue to be fit for the future.

For now, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Thank you once again for your continued support, we look forward to continuing working with you in 2023.

Yours sincerely

Ian