$33 MILLION INVESTMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION WORKFORCE A POSITIVE MOVE TO ADDRESS WORKER SHORTAGES IN QLD
7 March 2024 –
A $33 million dollar boost to Queensland’s early childhood education and care workforce is a positive step towards addressing the state’s workforce issues, an alliance of the state’s early childhood advocates said.
The Thrive by Five Queensland Alliance – an alliance of over 30 organisations supporting child development and education – said the state government’s Early Childhood Workforce Strategy, released today, will help to deliver new opportunities for thousands of early educators around Queensland, incentivising them to stay in the workforce and providing cost-of-living relief for early childhood teachers participating in prac placements.
Queensland Alliance spokesperson and CEO of PeakCare Tom Allsop said that the $33 million investment is an encouraging step forward for early childhood education and care in Queensland, and will provide some much-needed help for early educators to undertake new professional pathways and develop in their career.
However, Mr Allsop also said more needs to be done to address our workforce shortage, particuarly in regional and rual areas.
“This is a great initiative from the Miles Government that recognises the vital role early childhood educators play in helping with the development of our children in these crucial first five years,” Mr Allsop said.
“The introduction of paid payments for early childhood teachers participating in prac placements will help to provide much-needed financial relief for new educators and incentivise more prospective employees to take up work in the sector.
“Additionally, providing further training and development opportunities will help our educators upskill and progress within their careers while remaining in the workforce, addressing some the retention issues we’re currently seeing with our early workforce.”
“This is an undeniably positive step from the Queensland Government, but there’s still much more to be done in order to fully address Queensland’s early childhood workforce issues.
“In an election year, we also need to hear from the Opposition and other parties as to what their early years strategies look like.
“This $33 million injection will help alleviate some of these stresses facing early childhood educators, but it’s far less than the projected $200 million required to effectively address the state’s early years workforce issues and ensure that educators are adequately supported to help Queensland kids thrive.
“Queensland’s early childhood workforce is currently dealing with significant staffing shortages, with educators leaving the industry due to a lack of professional development opportunities and low pay.
“These issues are particularly felt in regional and rural areas and providing those educators with improved access to training and development – as well as other financial incentives – should be a key priority for the Queensland Government as they continue to invest in early childhood education and care.
“We look forward to continue working with the Miles Government, as well as other political parties, to develop a comprehensive strategy to bolster Queensland’s early learning workforce and ensure that all children have the opportunity to thrive.”
Jay Weatherill, from Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five campaign said that the investment was a positive step in the right direction and would help provide financial relief to aspiring educators, but that more needed to be done to help boost wages.
“We welcome this commitment by Premier Miles and his government and encourage them to also take more concrete action towards lifting educator wages,” Mr Weatherill said.
“Educators deserve to be compensated fairly for the vital work they do and the Queensland Government must use their position in the National Cabinet to advocate for funding an immediate wage increase for all educators. At a state level, the Government must ensure that steps are taken to lift the wages of educators directly employed by the state government.
“No attempts at making early learning more accessible and affordable can be fruitful without a strong, resilient and fairly compensated educator workforce, and governments at all levels must work to ensure that educators are well supported.”
Thrive by Five’s Queensland Alliance is supported by Minderoo Foundation and includes organisations from across the child development and wellbeing, education, university, union and early learning sectors.
Media Contact: Will Brewster, 0458 809 472
