Media Releases

14 Oct 2009 - 780 new university places for early childhood teachers

The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard and the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth, Kate Ellis, today announced 780 new university places in early childhood teaching.

500 new places will be available in 2010, with an initial allocation of 280 places in 2011. This builds on the 500 places provided in 2009.

Additional places for 2011 will be available for allocation at a later stage bringing the total number of additional places available to 1500 by 2011 as promised at the last election.

The Rudd Government is the first Federal government to prioritise and invest in early childhood education and care. Obviously, increasing the number of degree qualified early childhood educators is a key element of that reform agenda.

The first five years of a child's life are when they do their most important learning. Providing access to high quality affordable early education programs is one of the best ways to ensure positive outcomes for children, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The new places are one component of the Rudd Government's National Early Years Workforce Strategy and will help meet the national demand for degree-qualified early childhood education teachers in the future.

Places have been allocated to higher education providers in the following states and territories:

" 2010: New South Wales (185 places); Victoria (155 places); Queensland (60 places); South Australia (40 places); Northern Territory (50 places) and the Australian Capital Territory (10 places).

" 2011: New South Wales (55 places); Victoria (50 places); Queensland (60 places); Western Australia (65 places); and South Australia (50 places).

The early childhood teachers produced by the extra places will be integral to delivering core components of the Government's early childhood education and care reform agenda.

In particular, the commitment to provide access to a quality early childhood education program for all children by 2013, for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year delivered by a university trained early childhood teacher in the year before formal schooling.

Launched in July 2009, the implementation of the Early Years Learning Framework is a milestone in the Government's push for high quality early childhood education that, for the first time, will be consistent throughout the country.

Consultations are underway on a series of options for the next phase of the Government's quality agenda including a national quality standard with staff-to-child ratios and qualification requirements. The consultations are identifying strong support for improving quality while recognising the significant workforce challenges to achieve the reforms.

The 780 new places in early childhood teaching courses will go some way towards delivering the future workforce needed to achieve these important reforms.

Following the introduction of a student-centred funding system for higher education places in 2012, there will be no limit to the number of new Commonwealth supported undergraduate early childhood education places that can be offered by public universities.

For more information about the Government's early childhood education and care reform agenda, you can visit www.deewr.gov.au/earlychildhood.