A national review of teacher registration may make it easier for experienced workers to become teachers.
The Australian Government, with the support of states and territories, has launched a national review of teacher registration to help tackle key inconsistencies in systems across the country.
Minister for Education Simon Birmingham said the National Review of Teacher Registration, which had been endorsed by state and territory ministers at the Education Council, would focus on the registration of early childhood teachers, vocational education and training teachers in schools as well as how new teachers transition into the profession.
“We want to ensure we have teacher registration systems that are high-quality and more consistent and that complement our existing reforms to improve the initial training of teachers,” Mr Birmingham said.”
“There’s inconsistency in our teacher registration systems across the country and we need to understand what’s working and what’s not in key areas to set a bar everyone can work towards.”
Education ministers across the country had agreed to look at potential changes to registration practices including how early childhood educators and vocational education and training teachers fit into the picture, he said.
“Australia has fantastic teachers across every part of the education system and parents rightly expect teachers to have the right skills and training before they step into classrooms,” Mr Birmingham said. “We’ve been working hard since our Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group to deliver reforms to boost the quality of teaching in Australia.
“Those reforms include tests to ensure new teachers have literacy and numeracy skills in the top 30 per cent of the adult population, new accreditation standards for teacher training courses and a need for training organisations to demonstrate their graduates have the knowledge and experience to be successful educators.
“As our teacher education reforms flow through, we also want this Review to look at how teaching graduates make the transition to working in schools. Too many teachers report how they struggled making the jump from university to working in a school and so the registration process should ensure classroom proficiency is attained.”
Mr Birmingham said one of the Review’s aims was to explore how school systems could make it easier for people with other real-world skills to become teachers.
“Having a former tradie or nurse as a teacher can bring more perspective to a classroom and can be especially beneficial for the teaching of vocational and trade skills,” Mr Birmingham said.
“Teachers who have been working in other jobs can be a great way for students to learn about life after school and the different options open to them.”
