Andrews government splashing $1m to woo New Zealand teachers

After announcing $50k bonus payments to encourage Aussie educators back into roles, the Andrews government is looking further abroad to poach teachers.

The Andrews government will attempt to steal qualified early childhood educators from across the ditch to help fill kindergarten staff shortages across Victoria.

Early Childhood Education and Pre-Prep Minister Ingrid Stitt on Friday unveiled a new $1 million program aimed at attracting early childhood teachers and educators to work in hard to staff areas across Melbourne and regional Victoria.

For the first time, qualified educators will join teachers in being eligible for financial incentives for joining or returning to the sector.

It comes just a month after the state government announced it will completely transform early childhood education under a $9 billion program to begin nex year.

Kinder will be made free through new subsidies that are set to come into effect in 2023.

The hunt for talent will begin with employers turning their attention to New Zealand in a bid to lure people over the Tasman.

The Andrews government is offering financial incentives to encourage qualified teachers back to the industry.

“We know there are a lot of fantastic early childhood workers in that country who may be interested in relocating to Australia and Victoria,” Ms Stitt said.

“We’re casting the net as widely as we can to look for skilled workers to come into this very rewarding sector.

“I’m really optimistic about how successful we will be in attracting new people to the sector.”

Ms Stitt said the Andrews government will also look to poach staff that are already working in the sector from interstate.

“We’re also providing incentives for teachers who might already work in a service across the state to think about, maybe, going to a harder to staff area,” she said.

Individual incentives of $9000 are on offer for qualified staff that are starting their careers, re-joining the sector or relocating to Victoria from interstate or New Zealand.

Location incentives of $9000 are also available for educators willing to relocate to high-priority services to deliver the rollout of free three-year-old kinder.

And further payments of between $2000 and $8000 are on offer as relocation support for people relocating more than 2000kms to take up a role.

Ms Stitt acknowledged many educators had been struck down with fatigue and illness over the last few years.

Early Childhood Education and Pre-Prep Minister Ingrid Stitt said “casting the net wide” was a smart move.

“We’ve had teachers and educators off sick with either Covid or other winter illnesses and this has been quite challenging for some of early childhood services,” she said.

“I know there is fatigue among many of our fantastic early childhood educators and teachers and we’ll continue to do whatever we can to support them.”

Up to 175 extra taxpayer-funded places will also be made available in the 2023 intake of Australian Catholic University’s accelerated bachelor of early childhood education.

The program of accelerated study gives diploma-qualified educators the opportunity to complete a bachelor’s degree and become early childhood teachers in 18 months.

“ACU is at the forefront of educating early childhood teachers in partnership with the Victorian government through our innovative course which supports experienced early childhood professionals to take their next step and become teachers,” Australian Catholic University’s National Head of School of Education Donna King said.

The Andrews government is offering bonus payments of up to $50,000 for people in this industry to take up hard-to-fill jobs in early childhood education.

Early childhood teachers offered $50k bonus to relocate

Qualified early childhood teachers are receiving bonus payments of up to $50,000 for taking up hard-to-fill jobs in Victorian preschools.

With the new kindergarten ­reforms creating demand for 6000 early-childhood educators, incentive packages starting at $9000 are on offer from the state government.

The scheme, which has helped attract 100 teachers so far, offers individual incentives of $9000 to attract teachers from outside the sector and ­location incentives of $9000 to $50,000.

The higher location incentive is for those moving to ­selected regional services who move more than 60km from home or switch from teaching or another profession.

Those receiving $50,000 will get $10,000 on signing, $10,000 after six months and then $10,000 a year for the next three years.

It comes as 82 per cent of early childhood teachers live in Melbourne compared with 15 per cent in inner regional and 3 per cent in outer regional areas.

The area with the fewest early childhood educators is Outer Gippsland, with 1 per cent, 2021 state data shows.

One-off relocation support of $3000 is also available for those moving more than 200km to take up a role.

The scheme has helped attract 100 teachers so far.

Early Childhood Minister Ingrid Stitt said the commitment to free, universal education for three and four-year-olds meant the system would “need a huge number of dedicated new early childhood ­educators and teachers to give all our kids the best start”.

“We’re offering financial ­incentives to attract more early childhood teachers to regional areas as we continue to rollout our nation leading free three and four-year-old kindergarten,” she said.

Many educational experts flagged staff shortages as likely to curb the state’s ambitious $9bn childcare and kinder overhaul.

The incentive program is open to qualified early childhood teachers joining or returning to the sector, as well as those coming from interstate or New Zealand.

The $209m Kindergarten Workforce Strategy also offers scholarships, upskilling, and free TAFE and traineeship programs.

Vacancies for jobs can be found at jobs.earlychildhood.education.vic.gov.au.

The site has more than 1000 positions listed across Melbourne and around the state.

See a sample of the jobs on offer in the table below.

Please note, the jobs listed below may or may not offer financial incentives. See individual job listings for more information.

Similar incentives have been in place since 2019 to ­attract teachers to regional schools, with 250 positions on offer for 2021-22.

It comes on top of other ­incentives such as $700 a day from agencies to attract teachers to fill Covid vacancies.

The Australian Education Union’s Justin Mullaly said the union welcomed the state government’s incentives and scholarships to expand and support the early-childhood education workforce.