Teacher Workforce Data and Planning Processes in Australia
Author: Owen, Susanne
Date: 2008-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Teachers,Labor Force,Planning,Data,Surveys,Responsibility,Teacher Supply and Demand,Teacher Education,Allied Health Occupations,Nursing,Cooperation,Data Collection

Workforce planning is essential to ensure sufficient numbers of well-qualified teachers and leaders to meet the emerging needs of schools in the 21st century. Given the current ageing workforce profile in Australia, there are concerns about teacher shortage, especially in some specialist subject areas, in rural and remote locations and in leadership positions. Teacher demand and supply issues affect many people and can have substantial implications for the quality of learning, curriculum provision, and school budgets. This report forms part of the Australian School Teacher and Leader project which was commissioned by the former Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) in June 2006. The purpose of the project is to provide a detailed picture of the Australian teacher workforce and to gather information to assist future planning on teacher supply. This particular report focuses on longer-term approaches to workforce data and processes. The project also included the Staff in Australia's Schools survey, a national data collection involving all States and Territories and school sectors. The survey results are presented in a separate report. The consultations conducted for this report have suggested two broad priorities for teacher workforce data and planning in Australia. The first is to ensure that, within this diversified and decentralised system of teacher preparation and employment, individual decision makers have the data they need to make the best possible decisions for their circumstances. The second priority is that there needs to be greater collaboration on workforce planning matters across Australia because of the common issues affecting teachers no matter where they work. Those seeking to improve teacher recruitment in any one state or sector, will struggle to achieve satisfactory outcomes if not enough teachers have been trained or there are more attractive careers elsewhere. Nevertheless, the general support for a more collaborative national approach was qualified by concerns about what this may mean in practice in terms of data privacy, potential data uses, jurisdictional issues, and implementation costs. The consultations and review of approaches in other countries and occupations suggest that there are four broad aspects of greater collaboration on workforce data that need to be seriously considered. These are: (1) Developing a sector-wide approach to workforce planning and data collection that is closely connected to policy development needs; (2) Working towards coordination of current administrative data collections concerning teachers and school leaders, and sharing of the key data and indicators under agreed protocols governing access and use; (3) Rationalising current one-off or irregular survey data collections from teachers and school leaders, and replacing a number of them by an integrated regular survey; and (4) Implementing collaborative data collections in areas that are widely judged to be important, but which currently receive little resourcing. Appended are: (1) Advisory Committee Membership; and (2) Organization of the Consultation. (Contains 2 figures, 12 tables, and 12 footnotes.)