Several state governments have this year announced funding to attract and retain more teachers to ease the workforce shortage. Education Matters analyses trends emerging in recruitment data.
In December 2022, Australia’s Education Ministers agreed on a National Teacher Workforce Action Plan that set out a clear pathway to addressing the national issue of teacher workforce shortages.
The plan stipulated five areas of priority, including improving teacher supply, strengthening initial teacher education, keeping the teachers we have, elevating the profession and better understanding future teacher workforce needs.
In August 2024, the Queensland Government announced a $54.5 million commitment to support the state’s education workforce in specialist skills and regional, rural and remote communities.
The funding will expand the state’s Turn to Teaching Internship program with an additional 200 places, expand the Trade to Teach Internship program with an additional 30 places, and deliver $18.3 million to provide attraction and retention payments to teachers at regional schools who have met workforce criteria.
Queensland’s Minister for Education Ms Di Farmer said these measures focus on supporting people interested in turning to a career in teaching, those who are already studying teaching, and also to attract, recruit and retain Queensland’s teacher workforce in its highest priority locations in the state.
“Teaching is one of the most rewarding careers and everyone, including teachers themselves, need to value their profession and we are determined to support our current workforce as well as attract and recruit even more teachers,” Ms Farmer said.
“We have listened and consulted widely with the sector to develop these measures that we believe will help deliver more teachers in Queensland state schools.”
In Tasmania, a pilot incentive package to attract teachers for hard-to-staff schools was announced by the state government in July. Tasmania’s Minister for Education Ms Jo Palmer said the package includes two incentive payments for staff who commit to working at an identified school for a minimum of one year.
“We know there is a national shortage of teachers and Tasmania is not immune to this issue,” Ms Palmer said.
“Our remote and regional areas can often face challenges when recruiting, which is why we already offer financial incentives for teachers who commit to working in isolated schools including Cape Barren Island, King Island District High School, Redpa Primary School and Zeehan Primary School.”
Once finalised and approved by the Tasmanian Industrial Commission, the incentive program will begin in Term 1, 2025, for a period of 12 months.
Earlier in the year, in May, the NSW Government announced it was continuing to address the teacher shortage with a program helping schools recruit teachers in hard-to-staff areas to expand by 40 per cent.
A further 26 regional schools have received additional support to engage quality teachers, bringing the total number of schools receiving intensive support to 111.
Long-standing vacancies at these schools can now be advertised with a recruitment bonus of up to $20,000, and a relocation support package of up to $8,000 for eligible teachers.
NSW’s Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Ms Prue Car said the government is committed to providing teachers where they are needed the most to ensure every student has the same educational opportunities, regardless of where they live.
“Having a qualified teacher in front of every class is key to lifting student outcomes, and we are working hard to attract and retain teachers in areas where the teacher shortage is most acute.”
The program’s success is evident with 615 teachers placed in permanent positions in the past 12 months. Dubbo College alone has had 61 vacant positions filled across its three campuses while on the program. Further to the recruitment support, the NSW Government is also offering tailored housing support to teachers in regional areas.
However, despite the push to recruit more teachers, some in the education sector warn of the dangers.
While the Australian Secondary Principals’ Association (ASPA) acknowledges the intent of reforms to address recruitment and retention of teachers and school leaders, it emphasises the need for effective and sustainable solutions.
“While we appreciate the efforts being made to attract and retain teachers, particularly in hard-to-staff areas, we are seeing mixed results from current strategies,” ASPA President Mr Andy Mison said.
“Financial incentives need careful consideration to avoid unintended consequences. They must be substantial enough to offset the rising cost of living and housing challenges, and structured in a way that doesn’t alienate existing staff who may be ineligible for recruitment bonuses.”
Mr Mison said ASPA is also concerned that the arms race of recruitment incentives among states, territories and sectors will exacerbate shortages in disadvantaged schools.
Statistically speaking
In his role as Chief Operating Officer at CareerOne, Mr Moussa Namini oversees sales, marketing and operations at the recruitment agency.
“I dive into the data as often as I can. I always look for insights and trends in particular industries, and your email prompted me to have a look at a couple of points of interest in education,” he says.
He says recent data analysis revealed an interesting statistic at a national level, but particularly evident in New South Wales.
“If you compare quarter two of the calendar year – April to June this year compared to last year – we’ve seen a 29 per cent increase in the engagement of candidates for teacher jobs in primary and secondary schools,” he says.
“That increase in engagement typically tells us that either there are fewer jobs in the market or candidates are more motivated to engage with and apply for particular jobs.
“In this case, year on year, the job volumes were relatively steady, so what that tells me is that there seems to be a greater motivation for candidates who are looking for teacher roles to seek out those jobs.”
This year, the Queensland Department of Education launched its Love to Teach Queensland campaign to attract teachers to the Sunshine State, citing benefits such as job security, competitive salaries and incentives, and a balanced lifestyle.
“Queensland was not so pronounced as New South Wales and Victoria in terms of engagement with advertised roles but there are a lot of push and pull factors that could drive that,” Mr Namini says.
Although more anecdotal than factual, he has noticed other notable trends in data on teacher recruitment.
“I tend to rely on my instincts on this, having been in the online job board space for 13 years, and I’ve noticed that we’re seeing job titles start to include motivational content,” he says.
“For example, I was looking at a job ad today titled ‘Physics and specialist maths teacher – wonderful school’. Another job title had a similar approach, ‘Looking for a teacher – highly regarded school’.
“This type of behaviour, to try to sell the reputation of the school or the job itself in the job title, is something we tend to see when it starts to become a highly competitive environment.”
Typically, he says, advertisers include that type of motivational content in the job description, rather than in the job title.
“It could be a trend forming. In the same way a parent might wonder which school is better when having to choose a school for their child, it stands to reason that a teacher might succumb to that same kind of thinking when choosing where they want to work,” he says.
Mr Namini’s data analysis also revealed that Queensland was over-indexing in teacher job volumes in the last 12 months.
“Typically and across the board we see volumes for both candidates and employers strongest in New South Wales, given it has the largest state population, but over the last period Queensland has strongly outperformed New South Wales in terms of teacher positions advertised so they’re certainly over-indexing compared to what we would expect.”
Mr Namini says an increase in job ads can be due to various reasons. “A school could be expanding, new schools could be opening up, or teachers could be leaving, and that gives rise to the need to post an ad in a particular school,” he says.
In fact, the increase in job ads for teachers in Victoria over the last six months aligns with several new primary and secondary schools opening in Melbourne’s fastest-growing suburbs. The Victorian School Building Authority has opened 14 new schools in 2024, with a further six set to open in 2025, and 19 planned for 2026. Principals for the six new schools opening in 2025 have already been appointed following a Department of Education recruitment process.
CareerOne’s job board also allows employers to showcase perks and benefits for particular roles they’re advertising.
“It could be things like free coffee, free parking, or training and the like. We see trends in this data as well, and those perks and benefits are sometimes indicative of how much effort organisations are going to in order to retain staff or attract staff,” Mr Namini says.
“In the education sector, I think a very interesting and reliable statistic is evident in the ‘training benefits offered’ – where we see a clear increase in the number of roles offering training as a benefit in 2024, along with trends of other benefits offered increasing.”
For example, in NSW, 59 advertised teacher positions offered training benefits in 2023. That figure almost doubled to 110 in 2024, according to CareerOne data. Similarly, in Victoria, 13 advertised teacher positions offered training in 2023. That figure jumped to 49 in 2024.
