Australia's ECEC workforce pipeline: Who and how many are pursuing further qualifications?
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Description
The significant shortfall of staff in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce identifies an imperative not only to recruit educators but to support ongoing qualifications and career advancement of those within. Indeed, Shaping Our Future, Australia’s workforce strategy for 2022–2031 identifies qualifications and career development as key focus areas. Taking this imperative, we asked Who? and How many? within the Australian workforce are committed to ongoing study? Analysing a national survey (N = 1291), we examine characteristics of those studying (20.5%) intending (52.3%) or wavering about further study (18.7%). Study and study intention were associated with being younger and at early career-stage, identifying a positive message for career growth. Those who were older or working part-time were less certain about ongoing training. Those with long tenure in ECEC had higher rates of studying for non-ECEC qualifications. Implications for qualification pipeline, career pathways and workforce strategy are discussed.
Impact and interest:
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| ID Code: | 251080 | ||||||
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| Item Type: | Contribution to Journal (Journal Article) | ||||||
| Refereed: | Yes | ||||||
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| Additional Information: | Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript. | ||||||
| Measurements or Duration: | 20 pages | ||||||
| Keywords: | Career pathways, Early childhood education and care (ECEC), Education and training, Qualifications, Workforce | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1007/s13384-024-00715-2 | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0311-6999 | ||||||
| Pure ID: | 174557817 | ||||||
| Divisions: | Current > QUT Faculties and Divisions > Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice Current > Schools > School of Teacher Education & Leadership Current > Schools > School of Early Childhood & Inclusive Education |
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| Funding Information: | The Early Years Workforce Study was funded under the ARC Linkage scheme (LP140100652) conducted by Queensland University of Technology, University of Queensland, and Charles Sturt University, in collaboration with the Queensland Department of Education and Training (now Department of Education), C&K (Childcare and Kindergarten) Queensland and Goodstart Early Learning. We gratefully thank Adjunct Professor Jo Lunn Brownlee for her support. | ||||||
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| Copyright Owner: | 2024 The Authors | ||||||
| Copyright Statement: | This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to qut.copyright@qut.edu.au | ||||||
| Deposited On: | 30 Jul 2024 23:11 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 31 Jul 2024 00:21 |
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