Catholic education says the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan endorsed today by the Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare, will help address immediate and future workforce needs.
"The strong national engagement has led to a focused plan to addr ess the immediate and future challenges of the teaching workforce," National Catholic education acting executive director Sally Egan said.
The National Catholic Education Commission has engaged extensively with state and territory Catholic education author ities and school systems on the development of the plan to attract, train and retain teachers.
"The plan seeks to address issues faced across all sectors including teacher shortages and retention, the need to strengthen initial teacher education, elevating the status of the teaching profession and understanding and planning for future tea cher workforce needs," she said.
"It is critical that we grow and strengthen the capability and capacity of our teaching profession through professional learning and mentoring opportunities to improve learning outcomes for all students in all schools.
"We support the further commitments to the draft plan including identifying ways to better support early career teachers, and encouraging experienced teachers not currently wo rking, to act as mentors for early career teachers.
"This is an exciting time for new graduates to join the teacher workforce ahead of these upcoming initiatives which will strengthen quality initial teacher education experiences and create greater pathway s for teachers to determine their professional journey.
"We look forward to ongoing c ooperation and participation in the teacher workforce action plan pilots in due course." NCEC is the peak body for Catholic Education in Australia and is responsible for the national coordination and representation of Catholic schools and education authori ties.
There are 1,755 Catholic schools educating over 785,000 or one in five Australian students and employing over 102,000 staff.
