JARRAD BOYD
A planned increase to the amount of teachers available to public schools could potentially combat the lack of graduate jobs for education students.
The Palaszczuk Government recently announced that it will be increasing the amount of teachers available to the public school system in Queensland by 875 over target.
This announcement has been well received by some who view it as a step forward in creating jobs for student teacher graduates.
Griffith University education student, Michael Robertson, believes that this increase could help combat the low number of student teacher graduates finding full-time employment.
“I think that this [increase in the number of teachers] is good news for education students,” said Mr Robertson.
“I know more than a few other students who have become disenchanted with studying teaching because of dwindling job prospects,” he said.
Mr Robertson himself is currently on a leave of absence from studying education, due in part, to becoming disheartened with employment opportunities upon completing his degree.
“One of the main reasons I went for education was that a couple of years ago it was seen as a guaranteed job,”
“Now people are getting in to it [teaching] and are realising that it isn’t a guaranteed job,” said Mr Robertson.
Senior Lecturer for Arts and Education at Southern Cross University Dr Alexandra Lasczik Cutcher agreed that an increase to teachers in circulation was “a start”.
Though she said more information would need to be provided in order to gauge the overall effect on the amount of student teachers gaining full-time employment.
“Saying they will employ almost 900 more teachers above growth is a start,” said Dr Cutcher.
“What incentives will they give secondary students to study teaching? What subject areas are being targeted and will graduates be bonded to locations?”, Dr Cutcher said.
Statistics published by The Australian revealed that in QLD in 2014 only 230 of the 4489 student teachers who graduated were given full-time work.
A further 590 were hired on a casual or part-time basis in government schools.
According to the Federal Education Departments Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching database 40 percent of teaching graduates seeking full-time employment where unable to find work in the first 4 months after graduation.
