ATTRACTION, recruitment and retention are the hopes behind making studying to become a secondary school teacher free in Victoria.
The Victorian Government announced it would help grow the school workforce across the state with a $229.8 million package providing a variety of scholarships and incentives.
A $93.2 million spend will provide new scholarships to support teaching degree students with the cost of studying and living.
The scholarships will be available to all students who enrol in secondary school teaching degrees in 2024 and 2025, with final payments if they then work in Victorian Government schools for two years after they graduate.
A further $27 million will expand the Targeted Financial Incentives Program, which provides incentives of up to $50,000 to teachers from Victoria, interstate and overseas to take up rural, remote and otherwise hard-to-staff positions in government schools.
Kerang Technical High School principal Dean Rogers told the Gannawarra Times he believed anything to encourage more people into teaching was a good thing.
“We’re all aware that we are struggling with teachers and the numbers that we have there to fill positions, but this is a move in the right place by the government to encourage more people to take on teaching,” he said.
“We’ve had issues securing teachers, we are in fact a couple short at the moment, and we’ve been going through teaching agencies to get more teachers, and trying other ways of employing teachers.
“They are really tackling it from two different directions. They are providing the incentive to do teaching at university or college, but also they’ve got other programs in place where the department is trying to retain the teachers.
“Because that is the other end of the story – we are in the situation where we can get the teachers in there, but they are not staying there and making a career of it.”
Another $95.7 million will go towards expanding the Career Start initiative to support and retain teachers, developing graduate teachers in government schools with extra preparation time, mentoring and other professional support to help them flourish in their first year of teaching.
Almost $13.9 million will support a trial of employment-based degrees for undergraduates, which would allow people to study and qualify as a teacher while undertaking paid work at a school.
“Teachers change lives – it’s as simple as that,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.
“This will mean one less barrier for Victorians thinking of a career in teaching, and more great teachers for the education state.”
