Preschool Staffing

In reply to the Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (26 June 2024). (Estimates Committee A)

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills): I have been advised of the following:

The Department for Education is working closely with the Office of Early Childhood Development on designing and implementing the initiatives of the South Australia Early Childhood Workforce Strategy.

To staff government preschools, the department employs:

teachers who hold an ACECQA approved early childhood teaching qualification, which includes the b-5 three-year teaching degree and current B-8 Bachelor of Early Childhood Degrees; and

educators who hold or are working towards a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and/or Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care.

The department has a dedicated team responsible for connecting young people to undertake VET courses at technical colleges and we continue to promote career opportunities in our schools and preschools to young people undertaking a VET course.

We are currently working on developing initiatives with universities to develop targeted pathways for school support officers and early childhood workers to upskill to a teaching qualification.

The department supports people, including our existing educators, in obtaining teaching scholarships under multiple initiatives including, but not limited to:

Amy Levai Aboriginal Teaching Scholarships

National Teacher Workforce Action Plan scholarships; and

Enabling Educator Excellence.

We will continue to model our workforce requirements based on contemporaneous data relating to planning, attraction, recruitment, retention and professional learning. The goal is to support our current workforce and secure supply of a strong early years educators with the right capabilities.