Headteachers from across Wales attended workshops to help design and advise on the Newly Appointed and Acting Headteachers Leadership Development Programme, which launched this term.
The programme has been developed by the four education consortia in Wales in response to a Welsh government objective to cultivate inspirational school leaders.
It is the first to be successfully endorsed by the recently established National Academy for Educational Leadership (NAEL).
Leaders of the four consortia say they have been working together to pool resources and experience and to share best practice.
The leadership development programme aims to “develop uniform, high-quality provision for aspiring headteachers, headteachers new to post and experienced headteachers for delivery across the four regions to increase the number of skilled leaders across Wales”.
Debbie Harteveld, the consortia programme sponsor and managing director of the Education Achievement Service (EAS), said the new scheme represented the “first truly collaborative national leadership development programme”.
She said: “This is just the first of what will be a continuum of leadership development programmes offering high-quality leadership development provision to teachers at every stage in their career wherever they may teach or live in Wales.
Through the programme, teachers and headteachers will have the opportunity to seek accreditation and a formal qualification ranging from a post-graduate certificate through to a senior doctorate.
Course participants may also seek to gain credits from work-based learning activities leading towards qualifications from Yr Athrofa (University of Wales Trinity St David) and Bangor University.
Ms Harteveld said the endorsement by the NAEL – an independent organisation assessing the provision of education in Wales – was a “significant and positive step forward” for the consortia.
Huw Foster Evans, CEO of the NAEL, said: “This is the first programme to be endorsed by the academy and we want to say a big thank you to the partnership of the four regions, local authorities and universities for their work. We are confident that this new programme will offer inspiration and support for a new generation of headteachers who play such a key role in leading the learning for our children and young people.”