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Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on the rising number of teacher training enrolments · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: More teachers are on the way. They just have to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: pass university first, of course. So Johnny me now is
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Chris Abercrombie from the PPTA. He's the president, and good
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: morning to you, Chris, Good morning. So why are more
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: young people keen to get into teaching? What's changed?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Well, it's great that they've got an increase in these numbers,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: and it's fantastic to see the two things that have
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: helped teachers people. We know the tough economic times, people
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: like to become teachers. They see it is a good
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: career move. But also I think there's just young people
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: want to make a difference. They like jobs they feel
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: make a difference in teaching is one of them.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Can Erica Stamford and the government take credit for these
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: numbers or were we always going to see a bounce back.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I think there's obviously some things that they've done, Like
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I think the stipend available to support people into the
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: career has been fantastic and very helpful. Unfortunately, the numbers
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: overall are still less than what we had in the
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: early two thousands, but there's definitely tracking in the right direction.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Will this help the teacher shortage.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: In the short term? No, in the long term possibly,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: so we're still going to have to rely on overseas
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: trained teachers for this. But it's a good sign that
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: we're moving in the right direction. But there's still work
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: to be done.
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  Speaker 1: And looking at the numbers, the primary teachers are up
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the most, and then we've got the secondary teachers and
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: then the early childhood education teachers. Does that reflect the
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: order of need in terms of teacher shortages.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: No, unfortunately it doesn't. So we know in secondary we
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: need subject specialist teachers. There's one of our key issues
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: is that there's no guarantee that the teacher in front
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: of the young person is a subject specialist. So we
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: have that significant need in our sector.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Is we're talking about that. We hear about the low
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: bar for university entrances at the moment, and so i'd
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: have to ask if you're needing these specialist teachers. Are
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: new teachers coming out of UNI with enough skill to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: get straight into the workforce, and are they coming out
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: with the skills that you need to fulfill those shortages.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Well, it's definitely the first two years of your time
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: out of the teacher. Training out of the university is really important.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So you're sort of continuing that training. So schools need
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to be there to upskill them. Unfortunately, with the shortages
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: that we're experiencing and and those issues, that can be
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: harder to do that, but it's just vital that we
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: give the support to do that as well. Well.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: It's all good news and I thank you, Chris. Have
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: a Crombie PPTA present on the news that we're getting
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: more teachers. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 2:27
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• 2:31
  Speaker 2: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.