I am a primary teacher in Queensland and I can tell you that there is a glut of teachers in Queensland primary schools.
After coming off nearly three years of working full time on contract for Education Queensland, I have now had a total of ONE day's relief work this year.
The one and only agency that books teachers for this type of work ( the Tracer Unit ) has a statement on their website letting us know that schools have their own lists of preferred teachers and work will be allocated to these teachers first.
They suggest promoting yourself to schools but I have had brush off after brush off and no success getting myself on to anyone's list as of yet.
Teacher shortages were spouted when I was at uni seven years ago, and since graduating with the "highest suitability rating", which supposedly gives me the best chance of employment with the department, there has never been a shortage of teachers in Queensland primary schools.
People studying primary education are being misled.
Wendy, Teacher Shortage NOT!, Listener's comment, ABC Radio National Life Matters - Further Comments, 10 March 2010
I agree.
I am a High School science / maths teacher.
There is supposed to be a critical shortage of science / maths teachers.
I attended a Tracer conference, where school representatives got up and told to our faces that they preferred to have relief teachers with many years of teaching experience and retired from their own schools, so that they had a relationship with the students.
I looked around and saw many worried faces in the audience.
A year later I did a Return To Teaching course of about 20 hours duration.
The lecturer, a member of the Teacher Registration Board, suggested that we go to schools and offer to work for them, FOR FREE, in order to build a relationship in the pious hope of being offered paid work later.
Over the year, I visited many High Schools to present my CV to deputies.
I rarely got to see them.
The office workers, fine hard-working people who want to protect their bosses from excessive demands on their time, took the documents and said they would pass them on.
I know that the task of obtaining relief teachers is routinely delegated to office staff.
They and the deputies have told me so.
Actual principals are at a level way too rarefied, in most cases, to speak to us.
If a teacher cannot get enough experience in five years for full registration, they are struck off the list of registered teachers.
Their training and HECS fees have been wasted.
Bob Prell, Listener's Comment, ABC Radio National Life matters - Further Comments, 10 March 2010
Wendy is absolutely correct about a surplus of primary trained teachers in Queensland.
You need to be prepared to go anywhere and teach anything on contracts for a year or two before you have any hope of a job.
If you need regular work to survive this just isn't possible, so qualified teachers look elsewhere for work.
Universities cite the employment rate of their graduates but do not mention that many of the "employed" graduates are NOT employed in the jobs for which they trained.
Jan, Listener's Comment, ABC Radio National Life Matters - Further Comments, 26 March 2010.
I hold a degree in an industry that requires excellent language skills, the ability to critically analyse issues and a passion for writing.
After ten years in my industry I decided that I really wanted to become a teacher, and so I applied for a graduate diploma in high school education, only to be told that I did not complete enough English literature subjects in my undergraduate degree.
Current professional experience was not taken into account.
Instead I completed a diploma in primary education, was given absolutely no information about the glut of graduates in this field, graduated with straight High Distinctions and cannot get a job.
Comment 138 of 152, Professionals could be Queensland teachers in six weeks, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail.
22 February 2010
I'm a qualified and experienced Science, Maths and English teacher with excellent references and I have never had any major problem - but Education Queensland refuse to give me a job.
Colleagues of mine who are excellent teachers also cannot find work, so we are now leaving the teaching profession.
Kelly Smith of Brisbane, Comment 181 of 222, Professionals could be queensland teachers in six weeks, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail.
22 February 2010
I'm a qualified secondary English teacher with another "professional" degree.
I have found it impossible to get a teaching job anywhere in Queensland.
I'm really wondering where this "shortage of teachers" is?
Education Queensland is the most disorganised, unhelpful organisation I have ever had to deal with!
I'm ready to take my qualifications to the UK, where they will actually be put to use!
Comment 219 of 222, Professionals could be Queensland teachers in six weeks, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail.
22 February 2010
I also get very upset when I hear about the so-called "teacher shortage" in Queensland.
Education Queensland told us on January 27 2010 that only 800 of the 2800 graduates from 2009 got jobs.
What does a graduate have to do to get a job?
Five years of University to be fully qualified in two teaching areas, one of which is English (there is a shortage in this field, they reckon), first class honours, willing to go anywhere in Queensland - and still no offer of employment.
Harriet Cresswell, comment 220 of 222, Professionals could be Queensland teachers in six weeks, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail.
22 February 2010.
Katie, a high school teacher, told ABC Radio this morning that some of her fellow education graduates from 2007 were still unable to find a full-time teaching position.
Others had quit the profession shortly after entering the classroom, unable to cope.
"I know people who did their whole degree, did their prac ... and after two days said 'I can't do this'.
They don't teach any more."
Six week teacher plan "inadequate" , Courtney Trenwith, The Brisbane Times.
