This year’s Victorian Teacher Supply and Demand Report forecasts the state government will have delivered a workforce of more than 112,000 teachers ready to teach at government schools and kindergartens by 2028.
Minister for Education Ben Carroll announced on 20 March that Victoria’s teaching workforce has achieved higher growth than any other state or territory – accounting for more than half the national growth in Australia’s teaching workforce in 2023.
The report found that Victoria’s teaching workforce increased by 3.9 per cent between June 2022 and June 2023, due to continued growth in student enrolments and the state government’s suite of initiatives to support the state’s workforce.
“The Victorian Teacher Supply and Demand Report gives us a detailed look at our growing teaching workforce and will help us identify how we can best grow and support our workforce in the coming years,” Mr Carroll said.
“Thousands of highly trained graduate teachers are joining our education system every year, turning their passion into a career – and we’re making it easier than ever with a range of scholarships and incentives.”
The state government’s record investment in school workforce initiatives is standing the state in good stead to combat the Australia-wide issue of teacher shortages – with investments in attraction, recruitment, supporting early career teachers, retention, and career development.
These investments include $93.2 million for 8,000 new scholarships for students undertaking secondary school teaching degrees – which has already led to a nine per cent increase in university offers for teaching courses in 2024.
The government has invested $32.2 million for paid student teacher placements, paid placements for 1,200 postgraduates in secondary schools, and $95.7 million to expand supports for early career and returning teachers.
Victoria is also leading the way in attracting and retaining our highly skilled early childhood workforce – investing more than $370 million to deliver over 4,000 teaching scholarships and providing support to almost 1,700 diploma qualified educators become early childhood teachers.
“Our early childhood workers play a critical role in the lives of young children and we are committed to continuing to grow this workforce now and into the future as we expand early childhood education across the state,” Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn said.
To learn more about the Victorian Teacher Supply and Demand Report, visit vic.gov.au/statistics-victorian-schools-and-teaching
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