30 NovCombined Community Peaks Workforce Report
ELAA, CCC and CELA are pleased to launch our combined workforce report, Investing in our Future: Growing the education and care workforce. This report draws on data across Victoria and New South Wales to highlight the increased workforce challenges since COVID-19. Members reported vacancies at all levels, with over 4500 vacancies advertised in the first six months of 2021. These vacancies were across a variety of levels, and half of all vacancies remained unfilled. Services made changes to provision in response, including reducing the number of children able to attend, closing rooms and closing sessions.
As we head towards COVID normal the report proposes four key strategies to ensure our services can attract, develop and retain a quality workforce:
- improve the pay and conditions of sector employees, looking to the example of the VECTEA as a guide. This recommendation notes the role for government in supporting wage increases
- adapt strategies to attract and retain staff to address sector shortages. This recommendation notes the significant work currently undertaken to build the 3-year-old teaching workforce, and speaks to the need to broaden strategies to the entire ECEC workforce
- improve training. This recommendation notes the imperative to ensure all graduates are well prepared, including the vital role of placements, and to ensure a feedback mechanism exists to safeguard training quality
- skilled migration. This recommendation points to the important role played by skilled migration, and the opportunity to add early childhood education and care to the priority migration skilled occupation list.
ELAA will continue to advocate with community peaks for these recommendations, in addition to engaging in project work to create solutions in these spaces.
