ANZSCO 2414-11 Queensland
Secondary School Teachers April 2017
Labour Economics Office [State/Territory]
Department of Employment
Current labour market rating No shortage
Previous labour market rating (April 2016) No shortage
Comments
There is no shortage of generalist secondary school teachers. Some employers reported that vacancies for a number of secondary school specialisations can be harder to fill, especially for the senior years or when seeking specific subject combinations.
Occupation and vacancies
· Secondary school teachers teach one or more subjects within a prescribed curriculum to secondary school students and promote student’s social, emotional, intellectual and physical development.
· One quarter of surveyed employers in this year’s survey were public schools with the remainder being private schools.
· The employers surveyed had vacancies for permanent full-time positions, year-long contract positions, and a small number for part-time positions.
· Surveyed vacancies were for a wide range of subject areas and subject combinations.
o Around one quarter of vacancies were for qualified and experienced mathematics, science, physics, chemistry and biology teachers or a combination of these subjects.
o Around 15 per cent of vacancies sought qualified teachers of foreign languages including Japanese, French and Italian.
o Others vacancies were for teachers of subjects such as English, drama, dance, music, manual arts, teacher librarian, agriculture, innovative printing technologies (IPT), industrial design and technology, religion and religious education.
Survey results
· This year, 96 per cent of vacancies for secondary school teachers were filled within six weeks of advertising, compared with last year’s fill rate of 87 per cent.
o All metropolitan vacancies and 92 per cent of regional vacancies were filled.
o Although some employers reported difficulties filling vacancies due to the particular subject combination required by the school, they were able to fill their vacancies.
· On average, there were almost twice as many applicants per vacancy (9.7) compared with last year’s average of 5.6.
o Metropolitan vacancies attracted greater numbers of applicants per vacancy (12.9) than regional vacancies (5.7).
· There were 2.9 suitable applicants per vacancy on average, compared with 1.9 in 2016.
o Metropolitan vacancies attracted 3.2 suitable applicants per vacancy compared with 2.4 per regional vacancy.
· Employers nominated a variety of teaching specialisations as difficult to fill, including senior science subjects such as physics, chemistry and biology, mathematics, manual arts, and languages.
o Employers reported that languages teaching positions were difficult to fill as they were seeking qualified teachers who had language skills at native or near-native level.
Unsuitable applicants
· Around 71 per cent of all applicants were considered unsuitable in this year’s survey.
o This included qualified applicants fluent in an advertised language (such as interpreters) but lacking teaching qualifications.
· Of those applicants who were qualified, 58 per cent were considered unsuitable, most notably for issues around specific experience.
o Many unsuitable applicants did not have experience teaching a requisite subject (for example, senior physics) or had no experience teaching an additional subject or particular subject combinations, such as music and drama.
o Some unsuitable applicants were new graduates and did not have the length of experience required.
o Some employers were prepared to accept graduate science teachers for Years 7 to 10 but preferred experienced teachers for the senior years.
o Employers considered applicants for Head of Subject vacancies unsuitable if they could not demonstrate leadership skills, experience or financial and budgeting skills.
o Employers and recruitment agencies reported difficulty finding qualified manual arts teachers, resorting to the selection of tradespeople qualified in an appropriate trade and gaining ‘Permission to Teach’ approval.
· Several employers considered applicants unsuitable because they were not deemed a good cultural fit with the school or did not demonstrate a commitment to a particular ethos or values.
Demand and supply trends
· Demand for secondary school teachers depends on school enrolments and response to subject offerings and subject selection by students and school communities. Government funding and policies also affect occupational demand.
· There were 519 public and private secondary schools in Queensland in 2016, including 264 combined primary and secondary schools.[1]
· Over the ten years to 2014 the number of secondary school teaching staff employed in Queensland schools grew by 16.8 per cent.
o In 2015, with the transition of Year 7 to secondary school, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff increased by over 12 per cent to 26,543.5.
o In 2016, this figure increased by less than three per cent to 27,215.6 FTE teaching staff.[2]
· Online vacancies for secondary school teachers have declined by 17 per cent (compared with the most recent peak in May 2016), however despite this decline demand is still 85 per cent above the lowest level (recorded in September 2013).[3]
· The Australian Council for Educational Research expects ongoing increases in secondary school enrolments from 2018 onwards and estimates that this will increase demand for secondary teachers over the next ten years.[4]
· Entry to this profession is generally via a four-year bachelor degree with a major in secondary education or completion of a postgraduate qualification in secondary education and specialisation in at least two secondary curriculum areas.
o All teachers in Queensland schools must be registered with the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT).
o From 2016, the QCT has prescribed that a prerequisite for undergraduate education degrees will be “sound achievement” in certain English and mathematics subjects.
· The Queensland Department of Education and Training (DET) provided their most recent analysis of workforce and demand data; it indicates the following:
o Queensland is forecast to experience strong growth in student enrolment in coming years, particularly post 2020.
o It is expected there will be medium to long term supply challenges for secondary school teachers in Queensland due to this growth in enrolments.
o The Key Learning Areas and subject areas identified as most likely to experience supply challenges are: Languages; Industrial Technology and Design, Senior English, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
o The introduction of the two year post graduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) teaching program in 2018 is likely to cause a temporary reduction in new supply during the transition period.
· Data from the Department of Education and Training indicates that the number of students commencing initial teaching qualifications in Queensland (including early childhood, primary and secondary teaching) has averaged around 4000 per year since 2008.[5]
· The number of newly qualified school teaching graduates entering the Queensland labour market in 2015 was 2501. The four year average was 2375 and has remained relatively stable since 2012.[6]
· Information from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection indicates that temporary skilled migration, since the most recent peak of 43 in 2012-13, declined to a low of 19 in 2015-16. For the nine months to March 2017, 24 class 457 visas were granted for this occupation in Queensland indicating an increase in this source of supply.[7]
Labour Economics Office Queensland
Department of Employment
[1] ABS, 4221 Schools, Australia, 2016, Table 35b
[2] ABS, 4221 Schools, Australia, 2016 Table 51a
[3] Department of Employment
[4] The Teacher Workforce in Australia
[5] Department of Education and Training
[6] ibid
[7] Department of Immigration and Border Protection