Labour Market Research –School Teachers

Australian Capital Territory (ACT)2017

Occupations in cluster / Rating
2411-11 / Early Childhood (Pre-primary School) Teacher / Recruitment difficulty for positions in the child care sector
2412-13 / Primary School Teacher / No shortage
2414-11 / Secondary School Teacher / No shortage
2415 / Special Education Teachers / No shortage
  • There is no evidence of shortages of school teachers in the ACT, although employers recruiting for degree qualified early childhood teachers for the child care sector experience difficulty filling their vacancies.In 2017[1]
  • all surveyed vacancies for primary school, secondary school and special needs teachers were filled and employers attracted relatively large fields of applicants (compared with past years), the majority of whom were qualified
  • employers generally had the choiceof multiple suitable applicants.
  • Over the past three years, there have been more than adequate numbers of qualified applicants for available positions and few vacancies have been unfilled.

Figure 1:Proportion of vacancies filled (%), average no. of applicants and suitable applicantsper vacancy (no.), School Teachers, ACT, 2007-08to2016-17

Source: Department of Employment, Survey of Employers who have Recently Advertised

Survey results

  • On average, there were 8.4 applicants for each surveyed teaching vacancy in the ACT in 2017, of whom 6.7 were qualified and 2.7 were considered by employers to be suitable.
  • The largest applicant numbers were for primary school teacher vacancies (an average of 11.8 per vacancy).
  • There was little difference in the numbers of suitable applicants per vacancy across the teaching specialisations (around 3.0 for each occupation) except early childhood teacher which had a relatively low 1.4.
  • The only employers who had unfilled vacancies were those who were recruiting for qualified early childhood (pre-primary school) teachers for employment in child caresettings.
  • Although a large majority of employers filled vacancies for early childhood teachers, some in the child care sector experienced difficulty recruiting experienced teachers, with vacancies generally attracting fewer qualified applicants than those in the school sector.

Reasons applicants were unsuitable

  • The main reasons for applicants being considered unsuitable were
  • lack of teaching experience
  • poor applications
  • inadequate specific subject knowledge.

Demand and supply trends

  • Demand for teachers in the ACT is largely driven by student enrolments. Over the past decade, the staff to student ratio has remained relatively stable.[2]
  • The number of students enrolled in ACT schools increased by 2.6percent over the year to 2017, withprimary schools accounting for the majority of this rise.[3]
  • The number of teaching staffrose by 1.7 per cent over the year to 2016 and by 10.7percent over the five years. There were around 5500 teaching staff employed in ACT schools in 2016.[4]
  • Internet vacanciesin the ACT for school teachersalmostdoubledover the five years to May 2017, predominantly for early childhood teachers.[5]
  • Training for teachers is available through the University of Canberra and the Australian Catholic University, whichdeliver undergraduate courses in Teacher Education. Data on commencements and completions for the Australian Catholic University, however, are not available at the ACT level.[6]
  • Practising teachers are required to be registered with the ACT Teacher Quality Institute. At30 June 2016, there were 7656 approved teachers[7]of whom 745 were new registrations granted over the year.[8]

Figure 2:Commencements and completions, University of Canberra, Initial Teacher Courses, 2005 to 2015

Source: Department of Education and Training, Higher Education Student Data Collection

Labour Market Research and Analysis Branch

Department of EmploymentPage 1

[1] The survey was undertaken in the first six months of 2017. The methodology underpinning this research is outlined at Skill Shortage Research Methodology|Departmentof Employment - Document library, Australian Governmentand can also be accessed by the QR code

[2] ABS, Schools, Australia, 2016,Table53a

[3] ACT Government, Canberra School Census, various issues

[4] ABS, Schools, Australia, 2016, Table50a

[5] Department of Employment, Internet Vacancy Index, May 2017. Vacancies for teachers in the ACT Government’s schools are typically advertised through the ACT Education Directorate website and are not captured in the Internet Vacancy Index series

[6] Department of Education and Training, Higher Education Statistics Data Cube (uCube) (last accessed 5July2017)

[7] Includes provisional and ‘permit to teach’ registrations

[8] ACT Government, ACT Teacher Quality Institute Annual Report 2015-16, 2016, (last accessed 5 July 2017)