Teaching should be taught like medicine, argues NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell

Recruiting teachers is everyday business in education, but the challenges we experience in recruiting quality STEM and regional and remote teachers also requires new approaches.

It’s time for a national approach to Australia’s teaching profession. The ability to modernise the profession and therefore increase the supply of teachers is shared between different governments, stakeholders and sectors.

 The federally regulated universities train teachers, various state sectors employ teachers, and individual organisations support them.

 To truly change the profession for the better, to modernise it and make it more attractive to the next generation, we need to look at the whole picture.

 We need to look at the profession through a new, modern lens.

 For example, we should be targeting the almost half of all working Australians who are considering changing careers in the next 12 months.

 In NSW we are taking steps to do just that. As students started back at school this week, I was thrilled to see the first cohort of professionals who have switched mid-career to become teachers enter the classroom through an innovative NSW program.

Fadzli Bin Abdul Rahman (left) with Sarah Mitchell. Rahman, who after more than a decade working as a chemical engineer, is now on track to become a much-needed science teacher in a NSW public school. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

People like Fadzli Bin Abdul Rahman, who after more than a decade working as a chemical engineer is now on track to become a much-needed science teacher in a NSW public school.

 Our mid-career initiative is just one of many that form the NSW $125m Teacher Supply Strategy I launched last year to help supply teachers in subject areas and regions where they are most needed.

 This year alone NSW has hired more than 4,400 teachers, with another 3,000 on the way by the end of the year. On top the typical recruitment each year, we will need an additional 3,800 teachers to meet demand to 2027.

Recruiting teachers is everyday business in education, but the challenges we experience in recruiting quality STEM and regional and remote teachers also requires new approaches.

Other states are also dealing with these challenges. It’s also not a challenge unique to public education, with the pinch felt across all three school sectors in Australia.

 While each state and territory has its own recruitment and training processes, our approaches and levers to make change are not dissimilar. A national approach to set a consistent and co-ordinated plan can help make our collective efforts greater than their individual parts.

The first steps have already been taken. Yesterday a meeting of state and territory departments was convened by NSW to discuss what can be done at a national level to build a stronger, more flexible teacher supply pipeline for all states and territories that does not shirk on quality.

The next step is a national meeting on teacher supply and training to address the issues. NSW and Victoria will be taking a combined approach to the next Education Minister’s Meeting where I hope this work can begin to take shape.

Universities will play a huge role in this national approach. I have met with a number of vice chancellors on the issue already. They see the need and are eager to begin the work.

It is through a smarter approach in how Commonwealth-supported places (CSPs) for initial teacher education (ITE) are allocated that we can effect nationwide change.

The current approach just isn’t working. We need to look at who we train, in what areas and importantly how we train them.

I have spoken to principals across the state including our Ambassador Principals, and they all say the same thing. Get trainee teachers in the classroom earlier.

Our doctors and nurses are in hospitals from their first semester and for long periods of time. Teaching should be no different, and we need universities to work with us to achieve that change.

We also collectively need to challenge misconceptions about teaching. I am committed to addressing both pay and workload this year. Unions also have a responsibility. They must be mindful of the reputational damage they are doing to the profession and the opportunity they have to be a part of the solution.

Now is the time for a national effort to modernise the teaching profession, including how we train and supply teachers to the benefit of both current and future students in Australia.

Sarah Mitchell is the NSW Education Minister.