National

Vic puts $32m to upskill kinder workforce

By AAP Newswire

Jan 2, 2022

Coloured letter blocks at a kindergarten — Victoria is moving to provide access to five hours of funded kinder to all children aged three. -AAP Image

Victoria will fund an extra 1330 early childhood teaching places to boost the workforce and support the state's rollout of kindergarten for three-year-olds.

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The state government announced on Sunday $32 million would be invested over three years to upskill the early childhood workforce.

This will include accelerated entry into the sector for 780 diploma-qualified graduates, and 550 current students will be placed into the workforce as part of their early childhood teaching degree.

"This means that students can stay in the workforce, we need them in the workforce, and they can earn while they're learning," Early Childhood Minister Ingrid Stitt told reporters at parliament.

"We need thousands more teachers and educators in this sector over the next 10 years, so it's really important that we build that pipeline."

The program will be offered at the University of Melbourne, Victoria University, Deakin University, La Trobe University and the Australian Catholic University.

Victoria has set aside almost $5 billion to deliver kinder to children from age three across the state.

The state will aim to rollout five funded hours of kinder per week to all three-year-olds from the beginning of this school year.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press