On 8 August 2022 the Education Minister, the Hon Jason Clare MP, released an Issues Paper on Teacher Workforce Shortages ahead of a national meeting of Education Minsters on 12 August 2022. 

The first half of this meeting was a Teacher Workforce Roundtable focussed on tackling the nationwide teacher shortage. The Roundtable included principals, teachers, academics, and education experts.  The roundtable was held prior to a national Jobs and Skills Summit in September so that ideas generated could be fed into those discussions. 

The Roundtable and Issues Paper both identified that supply and retention challenges in the teaching profession are a result of a variety of factors including declining numbers of new graduate teachers, increasing demand from a growing student population and an ageing teacher and leadership workforce.  These have been exacerbated by the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic including changes to Australia’s skilled migration.

The Issues Paper identified that some of the main drivers of teacher shortages include the status of the teaching profession and workload issues. Initial Teacher Education (ITE) was discussed with reference to ensuring there is a future pipeline of teachers who are of a suitable standard and are available when and where needed; recognising that ITE policies on funding, program costs, enrolment targets and benchmarks may need further consideration.

The Roundtable provided an opportunity for Ministers to hear directly from a broad range of education sector representatives in relation to the current causes and factors impacting increasing teacher workforce shortages. Discussion focused on: 

• Initial Teacher Education programs, graduate retention rates and the best approach to university practicum placements, 
• workload and work intensification issues within the teaching profession.  
• strategies to reduce the burden of increasing compliance requirements (including but not limited to Nationally Consistent Collection of Data compliance)
• the importance of teacher wellbeing and professional development.  

After the Roundtable Federal, State and Territory Ministers agreed to develop a national action plan, to be considered and agreed in December 2022.