Helping qualified migrant teachers get into Australian schools

Sydney Institute for Community Languages which is trying to help qualified migrant teachers from across the globe become accredited in Australian schools. 60 teachers started Master of Teaching degree through Sydney's Community Languages Institute and its university partners, Western Sydney University and Australian Catholic University. Its aim is to offer a smooth pathway into the mainstream Australian school system.

Source: SBS

The Language's Institute Director Professor Ken Cruickshank says there's a huge amount of overseas qualified teachers currently locked out of the system.

"We estimate there are about 6,000 teachers in Australia in this situation. We did a study last year of the teachers in the NSW community languages schools and what we found is that 80 percent of the 3,000 teachers want to be teachers in Australia, but only two percent have made it. So basically you've got this huge pool of teachers with skills in science, maths, languages who are unable to get into the system."

Professor Cruickshank says the process is currently over-complicated, time consuming, and expensive.

"Many of the teachers go into the community language schools, they do the volunteer teaching, and then they think, I'd like to be a teacher in the day schools. But the problem is, where's the pathway? And we found from our survey that it was the lack of information, it was not knowing where to go, it was how to upgrade qualifications, it was how to get their English improved, there was no pathway for them."

Advocates like Mr Cruickshank say the teaching workforce is ageing in Australia, meaning the country must prepare for a huge demand of teachers - especially in science, technology, maths and languages. And employing a more diverse range of teachers should also be front of mind.

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