A world of opportunity
Taith is an international learning exchange programme established to create life-changing opportunities for people in Wales to learn, study and volunteer all over the world.
We embed an international approach into every level of our education system. Taith is for people in every part of Wales, and in every type of education setting. The sectors eligible for funding are:
- Schools
- Youth
- Adult Education
- Further Education and Vocational Education and Training
- Higher Education (covering Education and Research)
An opportunity for all
Taith is committed to reaching individuals and organisations who may face additional barriers to international learning exchange opportunities.
We aim to improve access for people from underrepresented groups including:
- Disabled people
- people from ethnic minority backgrounds
- people with additional learning needs
- people from disadvantaged backgrounds
Additional funding is available to support participants facing financial barriers to participation. There are two types of inclusion support available – for Disabled people and those with additional learning needs (ALN), and for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Inviting the world to Wales
Taith promotes collaborations between Welsh and international organisations that enable two-way learning exchanges. Hosting people in Wales is a fundamental principle of the programme with funding available to welcome learners, volunteers and staff from partner organisations around the world to Wales.
Making an impact
Taith mobilities and projects seek to inspire learners and raise aspirations. Educators and staff projects should create immediate and lasting benefits for generations of learners. Taith creates opportunities to broaden horizons, experience new ways of life, and bring back lessons to share with people at home.
Key questions
Taith is entirely funded by the Welsh Government. Funding is allocated on an annual basis and must be spent within the Welsh Government’s financial year period (1 April – 31 March). Taith does not receive funding in advance from the Welsh Government to fund any of the Pathway projects. This is paid on a point of need basis.
All applying organisations must demonstrate they have a stable and sufficient source of income to maintain eligible activities throughout the period during which the Taith project is being carried out.
Taith may carry out financial capacity checks, including but not limited to:
- A review of latest accounts on Companies House or the Charity Commission, where relevant.
- A review of the organisation’s most recent management accounts and or cash flow statement.
- A review of the organisation’s governing documents to confirm that the organisation can receive the funding, the name on bank account matches and other checks, where relevant.
- A check of credit reference agency records where appropriate.
- A review of the organisation’s current bank statements showing the closing balance.
There are a number of on-going project checks that the Taith team undertake on a monthly basis as part of the monitoring process of Grant Recipients. This includes:
- A comparison of the forecasted project spend against the actual project spend to date.
- A comparison of the forecasted activities and participant numbers against the actual activities and participant numbers to date.
- Feedback from the Grants & Finance team and the Programmes team about how the Grant Recipients are delivering their projects.
As part of these checks, a grants performance risk category is assigned to each Grant Recipient organisation.. Note –This grant performance risk rating can change on a monthly basis
All Grant Recipient(s) will receive an initial payment once the Grant Agreement Letter is signed. How much a Grant Recipient receives (as a percentage of the total grant awarded) will depend on the organisation’s risk category, as described above and the budget available. The size of the grant and risk category of the organisation will also determine the profile of the remainder of the funding.
Future grant payments (quarterly / interim / final) to Grant Recipients are made on the completion of a satisfactory report.
Global Wales
Taith has allocated over £10m to Universities Wales to deliver the third phase of Global Wales (the Global Wales III project), which will run until 2025. The Global Wales Partnership provides a strategic, collaborative approach to international Further and Higher Education in Wales. The aims of the Global Wales III project include building international partnerships and increasing student numbers from four priority markets: Europe, India, North America and Vietnam. To find out more about Global Wales, please visit the Universities Wales website.
Universities Wales website
Independent Evaluation Reports (Executive Summaries)
As a programme funded by the Welsh Government, it is a requirement that Taith is evaluated independently by an external evaluator. Wavehill were commissioned in August 2023 to conduct the inception stage evaluation of Taith, alongside a specific evaluation of Global Wales III (the largest single grant funded by Taith). Links to the Executive Summaries of the inception evaluation reports for Taith and Global Wales III are below.
