Stakeholders help shape the future of healthcare education in Wales

Published: 15/06/2026

Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) is developing Wales’ first Education Strategy for healthcare, setting out a long-term vision that will ensure that the education and training we commission and provide supports development of a skilled, sustainable and future-ready workforce across NHS Wales. This will help deliver better care and improve population health outcomes.

As the strategic workforce body for NHS Wales, HEIW commissions and delivers education and training for thousands of healthcare professionals at every stage of their career. The strategy will help ensure this work continues to respond to major challenges, including an ageing population, rapid technological change and changing expectations about how people learn and develop. 

Over the past year, we have worked with partners across the system to shape the strategy. In Autumn 2025, a wide range of stakeholders including learners, educators, employers, education providers, statutory organisations and policy experts were invited to contribute evidence, ideas and insight. HEIW is grateful to everyone who took part and shared their experience so openly and thoughtfully. 

We would also like to thank those who joined two recent stakeholder workshops in Cardiff and Llandudno. These sessions brought valuable discussion, constructive challenge and practical insight, and will help to shape a strategy that is ambitious, and grounded in and relevant to, the realities of healthcare education in Wales. The information we have gathered is now being reviewed in detail, and key themes will be published on the HEIW webpage shortly. 

Dr. Ian Mathieson, HEIW Director of Education Strategy & Transformation, said: 

“Developing Wales’ first Education Strategy for our healthcare workforce is a major opportunity. It is essential that it is shaped by the voices of those who learn, teach and work within the system every day. The ideas and perspectives shared through the call for evidence and stakeholder workshops are helping us build a strategy that is both ambitious and grounded in lived experience.” 

For further information please visit Education Strategy - HEIW or contact HEIW.Educationstrategy@wales.nhs.uk