These Regulations require persons qualifying as teachers to complete successfully an induction period before taking up employment at a “relevant school” in Wales. By virtue of section 43(2) of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998, this includes engagement otherwise than under a contract of employment at such a school.

A “relevant school” is a school maintained by a local education authority, and a special school not so maintained.

An induction period may be served in a relevant school (other than a hospital school), or an independent school the curriculum of which meets certain requirements of the National Curriculum or a sixth form college. It may not be served in a pupil referral unit or a school which is subject to “special measures”, unless the person in question is completing an induction period already started at the school or one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education and Training in Wales certifies that the school is fit to provide induction. A period of employment which counts towards induction under the corresponding induction regulations in England will count towards induction in Wales.

The length of an induction period is generally three school terms for a full-time teacher and its equivalent for a teacher working part-time.

There are exceptions to the requirement to serve an induction period: the main exceptions are for teachers who qualified before the Regulations come into force, teachers excepted from the requirement to be qualified teachers, teachers who have successfully completed induction periods in other parts of the United Kingdom, and teachers to whom Article 3 of Council Directive 89/48 EEC on a general system for the recognition of higher-education diplomas awarded on completion of professional education and training of at least three years' duration applies.

The Regulations provide for the National Assembly for Wales to set the standards against which teachers serving induction periods are to be assessed for the purpose of determining whether they have completed their induction periods successfully.

At the end of the induction period the head teacher of the school at which the teacher is employed makes a recommendation to the body which assesses teachers undergoing induction (usually the local education authority). That body decides whether the teacher has successfully completed induction, should have the induction period extended or whether he or she has failed to complete the induction satisfactorily. A person whose induction period has been extended or who has failed to complete induction satisfactorily can appeal to the General Teaching Council for Wales.