In the Spotlight: Iechyd da! Welsh medium medical education in Cardiff

Generations of Welsh doctors have been trained in Cardiff to serve the Welsh population’s needs. Before 2015, however, there was never any emphasis on the language of healthcare. Any Welsh provision in the training or delivery was haphazard and reliant on enthusiastic individuals.

Following devolution, Wales became responsible for its own policies on education and health and the focus changed to developing a high quality workforce to fulfil the needs of a bilingual nation. According to the Office of National Statistics in March 2019, nearly 900,000 are able to speak Welsh and the Welsh Language Measure of 2011 meant Welsh was to be treated no less favourably than English.

Previously, students from Welsh-medium education (26% of all Welsh schools) were arriving in medical school fluent and confident in Welsh but by the time they graduated, their professional Welsh fluency and confidence was lost. It was their anxiety and their feedback in 2013 which triggered this new direction.

Following research and consultation, it was concluded that Cardiff University needed to make “opportunities available for Welsh speaking students to complete a part of their training in Welsh, systematically throughout their education, placements and personal support.”

With the appointment of Dr Awen Iorweth, the first Welsh-medium clinical lecturer under the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol’s Academic Staffing scheme, Cardiff School of Medicine were finally able to offer Welsh-medium provision, concentrating on small group learning, personal tutors, communication skills and Welsh examination papers. In the Autumn of 2015, the School welcomed the first 4 Coleg Cymraeg Scholars.

The Coleg was established in 2011 to work with Welsh Universities to develop Welsh-medium courses and resources for students. The Coleg awards Incentive Scholarships of £500 per year for students studying at least a third of the degree course in Welsh.

In this academic year 2019/20, there are 24 scholars - 3 small learning groups - in the first year. The first generation will graduate in the summer of 2020 and their experience has been very positive.

This is a shortened version of the full article that features in edition 33 of ReMEDy.

Read the full article