Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Ministers statements: early childhood workforce

Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood) (12:16): Yesterday I updated the chamber on our historic $9 billion investment in early childhood education, an investment that will transform the lives of children and families. Today I would like to acknowledge the important work of the early childhood profession and the contribution they will make to this reform. At the heart of our reform is our wonderful early childhood workforce. We are going to have to grow this sector by an additional 5000 teachers and educators, and that is on top of the 6000 that we are already recruiting to deliver universal three-year-old kinder.

This morning I had the privilege of joining my upper house colleague Minister Pulford at Samantha’s Child Care in Camberwell to announce an expansion of the early childhood educator jobs initiative. The Andrews Labor government is investing $3.9 million in this program, delivered in partnership with Jobs Victoria and Chisholm TAFE, and it will create a total of 200 traineeships and enable educators to earn while they learn. This initiative is just one of the many measures that will help attract and retain the workforce we need.

This reform sends a very clear message to the sector that we value their work, that we are investing and that we want to make working in the sector appealing and rewarding. This is also work we will do in partnership with the new federal Labor government, and it was a pleasure to meet with Minister Anne Aly last week to discuss our shared priorities. There really never has been a better time to join the early childhood sector and make a lasting impact on the lives of Victorian children.