The Australian Children’s Education and Care Authority (ACECQA), on behalf of all governments, coordinated the development of the National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy (The National Strategy), which was publicly released in October 2021. The National Strategy was developed in consultation with national sector stakeholders and government representatives to support the recruitment, retention, sustainability and quality of the ECEC sector workforce. The National Strategy has been designed to address complex, long-term workforce issues over a period of 10 years and provides a call to action for all stakeholders to work towards ambitious goals.

After approving the publication of the National Strategy, Education Ministers requested work commence on an implementation and evaluation plan to guide collaborative efforts in achieving the strategy’s objectives. The Shaping Our Future: Implementation and Evaluation Plan was published in September 2022, along with a summary of complementary workforce-related initiatives. The summary outlines government and sector stakeholders’ investments in the early years workforce, including a range of new and enhanced supports aligned with the Strategy’s Focus Areas.

Focus Areas

The National Workforce Strategy is organised into 6 Focus Areas (FAs) and 21 actions. The progress of each action is published on the Implementation Tracker web page of the ACECQA Workforce Dashboard.

FA1-2 – Early Childhood Teacher Registration

The registration of early childhood teachers by state and territory teacher regulatory authorities formally recognises their work as part of the broader teaching profession, enhancing their professional identity. However, currently only four jurisdictions (South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales) require the registration of all early childhood teachers working in both school and non-school settings.

Under Focus Area FA1-2 of Shaping Our Future: Implementation and Evaluation Plan, Tasmania, together with the Australian Capital Territory, Norther Territory and Queensland, has committed to developing ‘jurisdictional roadmaps identifying key strategies and milestones to enable Early Childhood Teacher Registration’. This initiative is currently being progressed by the ECU through the project ‘Early Childhood Teacher Registration for ECTs working in ECEC settings’.

Stay tuned to receive updates and learn more about future consultation opportunities on the project.