Two former teachers, Ms Merryn Dawborn-Gundlach and Ms Julie Ryan, share the experiences of new teachers entering the profession through employment-based pathways.
Australia is facing a critical shortage of secondary school teachers, particularly in subjects like mathematics, science, and technology. In 2025, the expected shortfall of secondary teachers is likely to hit 4000 (Department of Education, Skills and Employment Modelling, 2022).
This shortage has resulted from a combination of factors, including increasing student enrolments due to high population growth. Increased enrolments have not been supported by a corresponding increase in the number of trained teachers.
An aging teacher workforce and lower enrolments in initial teacher education programmes have also added to the teacher shortage. In addition, qualified teachers are leaving the profession at an increasing rate, particularly in their early years of teaching. This attrition has been attributed to burnout, inadequate support and heavy teaching workloads. As a result, most schools struggle to fulfil their staffing needs.
Schools in rural, remote, and low socio-economic areas suffer disproportionately from the teacher shortage crisis as they attempt to attract and retain teachers who prefer to work in metropolitan areas and higher socio-economic schools where resources, facilities and access to opportunities for professional development align with their lifestyle needs and requirements.
One of the solutions to the teacher shortage has been to offer potential teachers alternative entry programmes to a teaching qualification. These programmes offer employment-based pathways, combining a teaching qualification with professional practice.
To be eligible to teach in schools without a teaching qualification, students enrolled in these courses require a Permission to Teach (PTT) exemption from the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT). Alternative teaching qualifications such as the Australian Catholic University’s Teach for Australia and La Trobe University’s Nexus program allow potential teachers to fast-track their teaching qualifications, while also gaining teaching experience in schools.
These pathways offer participants a salary and provide additional support in the form of mentoring and professional development, while also ensuring participants are prepared to enter the classroom with skills and the resilience to succeed in managing challenging teaching environments.
The University of Melbourne’s Master of Teaching (Secondary) Internship Program allows participants to work as paid interns in schools while completing their teaching qualifications. This course is designed to provide participants with practical, hands-on experience in the classroom, while also allowing them to study part-time towards a teaching degree. This approach is particularly attractive to career-changers and those who do not wish to return to university in a full-time capacity. Interns earn a salary while concurrently teaching and studying, reducing the financial barriers to entering the teaching profession through a traditional full-time study experience.
Employment-based pathways offering a teaching qualification have attracted career-change teachers in significant numbers and offer a potential partial solution to the immediate teacher shortage. These non-traditional teaching candidates bring valuable skills and professional and life experiences to the classroom. Once qualified, they are often asked to take on leadership roles, and provide professional learning to their colleagues; however, for some, there are unique and unforeseen challenges, as they adapt to a new career. These include balancing/prioritising teaching and academic commitments, transferring current pedagogy directly into their teaching practice, developing skills to adapt to the unique demands of the classroom, moving between teacher and student roles, having sole responsibility for their students from the first day, and balancing family and social commitments.
For some, the transition from their previous professional identity to that of a teacher can be problematic, especially when their previous professional experiences are not acknowledged by leadership and colleagues. Adopting a professional identity as a teacher enhances self-confidence, especially when their role in the school as an intern is somewhat compromised due to not yet having teaching qualifications.
The transition to teaching often involves a significant pay cut, particularly if teachers are coming from higher-paying industries such as business or technology. The financial strain can be particularly challenging for those who have families to support. For many teachers entering through alternative initial teacher education programmes with an employment-based focus, the decision to enter teaching is driven by a desire to make a positive impact on the lives of young people. However, the realities of the classroom can sometimes be discouraging, particularly for those working in disadvantaged schools, where the emotional toll of working with students who face significant challenges such as poverty, trauma, etc., can be considerable. Maintaining motivation and support in these situations can be challenging.
Participants in alternative entry programs often report feeling isolated or unsupported, without frequent contact with their academic lecturers and tutors or when working in rural or remote areas. Mentoring and peer support can play a crucial role in helping participants cope with the emotional challenges of teaching, although a mismatch in approach, age or teaching philosophy can hinder rather than enhance the positive support that a positive and supportive mentor/mentee relationship can provide.
Alternative entry programs have many benefits both for schools and for the teachers enrolled in these programs. For schools, there is the benefit of access to committed and enthusiastic staff and an opportunity to develop the potential of a person who is open to learning. For teachers, the benefits of paid employment as they study and the chance to enter the classroom at the start of their studies is attractive, but the workload associated with teaching and studying can feel overwhelming. Despite completing theory classes on pedagogy and behaviour management, their first taste of teaching often proves challenging. Taking on the persona of a teacher, finding their own strengths while learning to navigate the school structures and pedagogical frameworks take time.
The University of Melbourne’s Master of Teaching (Secondary) Internship course has proven to be a successful pathway into the profession. Most interns complete the two years successfully and go on to employment, often in an ongoing role in their internship school. School and university support is vital to this success. Interns report that the support provided both by their schools and the university are essential to their pedagogical development, academic achievement and their wellbeing over the time of their internship.
The secondary teaching shortage in Australia, and indeed internationally, is a complex issue that requires innovative solutions. Alternative entry programs like Teach for Australia, the University of Melbourne’s Internship Program, and La Trobe University’s Nexus program offer one form of solution, while attracting career-changers to leave their previous career and enter teaching, offers another.
Many career-change teachers enter the teaching profession through an alternative entry pathway such as an employment-based option. By attracting talented individuals from diverse backgrounds into the teaching profession, these programs are helping to address the shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in disadvantaged areas.
Each of the work-based pathways offered in Victoria address teacher shortages in disadvantaged communities, preparing teachers to work in low socio-economic, rural, and remote schools, where the need for qualified educators is most acute. While this is an altruistic vision, the current teacher shortage lies across all domains of education in Australia, including independent, faith, catholic, metropolitan, outer-metropolitan, regional and remote schools. Clearly, more than one solution to address the current teacher shortage is necessary.
