The teacher shortage saga

But not for grads of Avondale

It’s a saga! The ongoing shortage of teachers and the disillusionment in teaching ranks discussed in this ABC News story shows the declining future for teachers, right? Not at Avondale. The story for our graduates is a lot different.

According to the ABC News story, demand for secondary teachers will result in a deficit of 4100 teachers over the next three years. This has become evident in the independent sector as many schools have contacted me asking for recommendations—and availability—of our graduate teachers. Not only are the schools short on teachers, but they are wanting to employ teachers with a Christian worldview.

The news story focused on a teacher who trained as a mature-age student but after graduating could not get a permanent position over seven years. There are no issues like this at Avondale. For more than a decade and well before the current teacher shortage, more than 85 percent of our graduates who sought permanent employment found it immediately. In many cases, students receive multiple job offers.

At Avondale, we want our pre-service teachers to catch a vision: that teaching is a ministry. The Federal Minister of Education, Jason Clare, highlights in the news story his major concern of “encouraging more people to want to be teachers.” We have a “built-in” motivation for becoming a teacher, and that is to change the lives of the students with whom we work.

Part of the story told by the teaching graduate was that her university did not make it clear what it would be like to get a teaching job. At Avondale, we have a unit called Preparation for the Workplace that introduces students to potential employers and then works to match students to schools. The students are surprised how easy it is to get work out of Avondale and how many options there are for them.

It was also reported that the younger the teacher, the more difficult it is for them to find permanent positions in a school. This is also not true for Avondale. Young teachers are sought after for permanent positions and even urged to teach on conditional accreditation before they graduate.

Teachers are looking to develop a career and not just go from contract to contract. We push teaching as a career in ministry with short- and long-term job satisfaction.