Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on the rising number of teacher training enrolments

Optimism in the education sector as the number of people studying to be a teacher rises. 

There's been about 3,500 new domestic enrolments to initial teacher training this year – up 30% on the same time last year. 

Primary education's grown by 31%, while enrolments in secondary are up 28%, and 24% for ECE. 

PPTA President Chris Abercrombie told Andrew Dickens that doesn't reflect the need, in terms of shortages. 

He says in secondary education, they are often short of subject specialists. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More teachers are on the way. They just have to
pass university first, of course. So Johnny me now is
Chris Abercrombie from the PPTA. He's the president, and good
morning to you, Chris, Good morning. So why are more
young people keen to get into teaching? What's changed?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, it's great that they've got an increase in these numbers,
and it's fantastic to see the two things that have
helped teachers people. We know the tough economic times, people
like to become teachers. They see it is a good
career move. But also I think there's just young people
want to make a difference. They like jobs they feel
make a difference in teaching is one of them.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Can Erica Stamford and the government take credit for these
numbers or were we always going to see a bounce back.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I think there's obviously some things that they've done, Like
I think the stipend available to support people into the
career has been fantastic and very helpful. Unfortunately, the numbers
overall are still less than what we had in the
early two thousands, but there's definitely tracking in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Will this help the teacher shortage.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
In the short term? No, in the long term possibly,
so we're still going to have to rely on overseas
trained teachers for this. But it's a good sign that
we're moving in the right direction. But there's still work
to be done.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
And looking at the numbers, the primary teachers are up
the most, and then we've got the secondary teachers and
then the early childhood education teachers. Does that reflect the
order of need in terms of teacher shortages.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
No, unfortunately it doesn't. So we know in secondary we
need subject specialist teachers. There's one of our key issues
is that there's no guarantee that the teacher in front
of the young person is a subject specialist. So we
have that significant need in our sector.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Is we're talking about that. We hear about the low
bar for university entrances at the moment, and so i'd
have to ask if you're needing these specialist teachers. Are
new teachers coming out of UNI with enough skill to
get straight into the workforce, and are they coming out
with the skills that you need to fulfill those shortages.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, it's definitely the first two years of your time
out of the teacher. Training out of the university is really important.
So you're sort of continuing that training. So schools need
to be there to upskill them. Unfortunately, with the shortages
that we're experiencing and and those issues, that can be
harder to do that, but it's just vital that we
give the support to do that as well. Well.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
It's all good news and I thank you, Chris. Have
a Crombie PPTA present on the news that we're getting
more teachers. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
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