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New Financial Incentives To Boost Early Childhood Jobs

21 June 2021

The Victorian Government is giving qualified early childhood teachers the opportunity to receive financial incentives of $9,000 to $50,000 to work in services across Victoria delivering Three-Year-Old Kindergarten.

Minister for Early Childhood Ingrid Stitt today announced an updated Victorian Early Childhood Teacher Financial Incentives program as part of the $32.4 million investment in the Victorian Budget 2021/22 to support and expand the sector’s workforce in line with the statewide roll-out of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten in 2022.

For the first time, qualified early childhood teachers joining or returning to the sector, as well as those coming from interstate and New Zealand, will be eligible for these incentives. Returning teachers re-joining the sector will also be able to access additional professional learning to help with their career move.

Incentives will be available in selected services delivering Three-Year-Old Kindergarten in areas that include hard-to-staff programs in metropolitan Melbourne and regional and rural Victoria, and available to the current workforce or those joining the profession.

Relocation grants will also be available for teachers who move more than 200km to take up a position in a hard-to-staff location.

Incentives will be announced on the new online Early Childhood Jobs Board, which also launched today. With the workforce expanding as part of the Three-Year-Old Kindergarten roll-out, the Jobs Board has been created as an employment support tool.

The Board means that, for the first time, the early childhood sector can connect in the one place to look for, apply and advertise jobs and incentives.

In an Australian-first, the Government is investing $5 billion this decade to provide three-year-old children with access to 15 hours of a funded kindergarten program.

From 2022, three-year-old children across the state will have access to at least five hours of kindergarten delivered by a teacher. Services will then scale up their hours to reach the full 15-hour program by 2029.

To find a job in early childhood education or to advertise new opportunities, visit https://ecjobs.educationapps.vic.gov.au/External Link

To find out more about the Victorian Early Childhood Teacher Financial Incentives program, visit vic.gov.au/kinderExternal Link .

Quotes attributable to Minister for Early Childhood Ingrid Stitt

“Growing the early childhood education workforce is critical for the statewide roll-out of Three-Year-Old Kinder – the biggest reform in the history of early childhood education in Victoria.

“We are giving our early childhood teachers the best support to work across the state so that all Victorian children can have a great start to their educational journey, no matter where they live.”

Reviewed 22 June 2021

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