S2, EP 24: Unpacking the Teacher Workforce Roundtable

How do we work collaboratively as a system to move forward?

The education profession is facing a raft of complexities that are driving the current teacher shortage around Australia, and in deed globally. 

In episode 24, the Teacher Takeaway Podcast unpack the most recent Teacher Workforce Roundtable held by education minister Jason Clare and attended by our very own co-host Rebecca West, including:

• How did Rebecca come to be involved in the roundtable?
• What was on the agenda?
  
• What is the issues paper?
  
• What were the recommendations discussed?
  
• Where to next?
  
• What are some of the barriers?
  

Teacher Workforce Shortages Issues Paper

This document addresses multiple issues facing the education profession, including:

• poor status of the profession
• working conditions (workload, salary, casual)
• initial teacher education (ITE)
• skilled migration
• recruitment in areas of need
• early childhood (salary, working conditions)
• diversity (underrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander teachers)
• CONVID-19 pandemic 

Multiple factors = shortages (this has been building for awhile)

teacher-workforce-shortages-issues-paper.pdf
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Recommendations

The issues paper highlights 17 recommendations to help address the current teacher shortage in education, including:

1. Raise the status of teaching 
   
2. Attract high-quality candidates 
   
3. Reduce teacher's workloads 
   
4. Improve career advice 
   
5. Better recognise prior learning of high-quality, mid-career changers 
   
6. Accelerate high quality candidates into teaching 
   
7. Strengthen initial teacher education (ITE) programs to deliver confident, effective, classroom-ready graduates 
   
8. Reward good performance 
   
9. Support families and carers to engage with teachers 
   
10. Strengthen national standard setting and moderation of Teaching Performance Assessments (TPAs) 
    
11. Require earlier identification of suitability to teach 
    
12. Promote reform through the next National School Reform Agreement 
    
13. Require transparency of initial teacher education (ITE) academic staff with recent teaching experience 
    
14. Establish a Centre for excellence to teach, research and evaluate best teaching practice 
    
15. Strengthen the link between performance and funding of initial teacher education (ITE) 
    
16. Develop national guidelines for mentors 
    
17. Develop a national approach to understanding teacher workload supply and demand