Alarm at severe staffing shortage

ABOUT one in 10 roles at childcare centres roles are presently vacant, according to latest data, as a report predicts the staffing crisis will worsen.

It means thousands of centres are using waivers to permit operation despite the inadequate staffing, including more than 13 per cent of long daycare services.

Others may have to close if they fail to recruit staff.

The official number of vacancies in centres are at a record high with more than 6230 job adverts across the industry.

Among them were more than 300 vacancies for childcare centre managers, 1799 for teachers and 4135 for child carers.

NSW had the most vacant spots for teachers and child carers (2134), followed by Victoria (1431) and Queensland (1371). Tasmania fared the best, with just 26 vacancies. Meanwhile, an exclusive report – Rebuilding the Early Childhood Education and Care Industry in Australia, released by the Carmichael Centre – predicted the workforce crisis would decline further.

It found that by 2030, 41,500 new graduates would be needed each year to meet the demands of working parents.

At the moment, there were 35,000 people qualifying. It calculated that if Australia was to match the average staffing levels of other OECD countries, it would need to produce 48,000 graduates annually.

Report author Mark Dean said the industry needed to provide better pay for its female-dominated workforce and clearer career path opportunities if it wanted to retain them and attract recruits.

The report also found the best way to provide training was to expand and properly fund the TAFE system.

“Workforce shortages have been a problematic reality of the pandemic, both within the early childhood education sector and across the broader economy,” Dr Dean said.

Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said a betterfunded system would help “meet the scale of skills and training requirements needed to plug the shortage of early childhood educators”.