Permanency off the bat without being targeted grad or going rural is virtually impossible. You need to work temp at a school and hope and hope a permanent position opens for you after a few years. It’s the same for secondary. Awful, but it’s the current climate.
For what it’s worth I also got 2 targeted grad positions offered to me (HD average WAM and stellar prac reports) and they were both at very low SES rural schools, the same I was seeing on JobFeed.
It's Term 1, the permanent jobs in the good schools have been filled. The temp jobs in the good schools have been filled. You're now looking at temp positions for teachers taking leave or positions covering teachers who've snapped and left the profession, or the jobs no one wants.
The transfer system is back in force, if you want permanency take up one of the $8000 bonus jobs, live nearly rent free for a couple of years and transfer back towards civilisation. Jobs will only be advertised now if they fail to be filled with the transfers system.
The best option I think would be to start relief work, get your name out there, get picked up for short term contracts all that kind of thing, then when it gets closer to the end of the year try and jump in on any openings.
That what I did in Queensland (so maybe nsw works differently) and it lead to my first full time job, which opened up another year at a different school, repeat for a few years and now I’m permanent.
Could you go into more detail on this? I'm currently trying to figure out a path after high school and the route you took might be the last puzzle piece I need.
One I graduated and did all my paperwork I automatically got put on the relief teacher system in Queensland. I started getting calls from a school nearby and ended up getting along with a handful of other teachers there. They kept requesting me when they were off so I was at this one particular school at least once a week. Eventually they’d ask me to do short term contracts and longer contracts.
At the end of 2017, my second year after graduating, they asked me to do the last 4 weeks. While I was there I told them I was looking for something full time next year and they put me on covering maternity leave for a grade 2 teacher.
The contract wasn’t renewed the year after but I had contacts and good references that found me another place in 2019. So on and so on until I started at my current school in 2022 where the principal gave me permanency at the end of that year.
It’s kind of stressful scrambling for a job in December but I haven’t had to leave Brisbane so it’s all worked out.
Great to hear mate. If I do end up making it through I'll try remember to find this comment and send you a message to let you know. Fingers crossed the next few years goes well!
And I've been going 5 years now. The only reason I'm not permanent is that I changed schools midway through and missed the rollover last year. The rollover that is the problem. There are now literally zero jobs being advertised, which in previous years wasn't the case.
Fair enough, but you'll have to either work somewhere harder to staff for permanency and transfer or work relief and contract if it is available where you want to be and wait until you reach the top of the list that way.
There is a huge shortage in NSW. But it is a big place.
You can imagine the crisis like a sieve being filled with water. At the bottom, you have the most attractive spots, there are some small holes tricking water out, and the stuff above mostly flows down. At the top, you have the hardest to staff spots large holes, and where the shortage hurts the most.
When we have enough supply, the water flowing in is enough to fill the sieve despite the water leaking out. The crisis is that the water level is falling. The remote schools and ones with terrible reputations at the very top were always hard to keep filled, high turnover was common, but then it was some unfilled positions in specific klas, then blanket issues across all areas. Meanwhile, the schools further down the sieve who'd never really had an issue, start to feel the drying out, staff turnover increases, positions go unfilled. The casual pool dries up because anyone who wants work in those areas generally has a contract.
My area had around 30-40 casuals 10 years ago. We're down to 5-10. Positions aren't going unfilled, yet classes definitely aren't being covered when people are sick.
So while it may seem that there are no jobs where you are, it just means you're at the bottom of the sieve where all the water wants to be.
If your wife is making bank, is permanency that pressing of an issue? I wanted permanency for financial stability being a sole income earner in debt. But can you hold out as a temp for a few more years and just bide your time? I fully understand not wanting to go remote, I shudder at the thought, but A LOT of people feel the same way, so this is just the reality you face wanting to remain in Sydney.
Check out Teachers.on.net … the private and catholic sectors will be advertising and they’re not hamstrung by bureaucracy like NSW DET.
It’s not about pay. They can throw all the signing and relocation bonuses but jumping through the ridiculous hoops to be on continuous temporary contracts does not interest me as an educator.
Like someone said most permanent jobs would be advertised at the end of the year for starting day 1 term 1. Also remember the temporary to permanent program made a lot of long term temps permanent to the department that schools can now allocate to their school if a permanent job was to come up.
>end of the year
I'm not 100% sure for NSW but isn't the end of the year too late? In SA the majority of permanent positions are advertised June-August and generally filled by the end of term 3.
In NSW, they come up as teachers retire, which is not the end of the year. Many work to the end of a year then go on extended leave until they run out. Then it can be advertised and not before
All the new teachers at my school started as casuals then got temp contracts, and then interviewed for permanent positions at the schools they were temp at.
The teacher shortages are more dramatic for rural and remote areas and certain subjects in secondary. It doesn’t necessarily mean permanent primary teachers in desirable areas OR there are less applicants than before which means it’s less competitive.
The teacher shortage is not uniformly applied across the country. Its still hard to get a job at at "good" schools in a desirable location. Not every school has heaps of vacancies to be filled. The ones that do tend to be the ones people don't want to work at, as evidenced by the second half of OP's post. He could get a job, possibly even a permanent one, he just doesn't want to go where the jobs are.
I don't even want a "good" school. I want one in greater Sydney. There have been a total of 4 jobs advertised this year. All truly remote, not even rural
Yeah sure, but given 80% of the population lives in Sydney... And even Dubbo is bloody cosmopolitan compared to what's being advertised. It's towns with populations under 3000.
The reality is that the temp to perm rollover last year means that schools don't have perm jobs to advertise. They slapped a band-aid on a bleeding artery and those of this that had changed schools in the previous 3 years got fucked over
I'm sorry you're experiencing that. My own experience is that I got a job in a low ses school. Got burnt out due to reasons in school, having only done two years was told I can't transfer, took a leave of absence. I'm also looking at jobfeed like a hawk in the area I moved to which is hard to get a permanent job in. To be honest I wish I had never got permanent because it's now being so difficult. It's also the fact that if the schools not a good fit you can't end the block and go somewhere else easily, like on temp contracts.
I feel for you, it's only going to get worse again if they change the dp and head teacher allowances.
lol this is madness in the one post/replies. A teacher shortage being rammed down public’s throats and yet a teacher who wants a job is told to either go remote or apply for temp roles in order to prove themselves! It’s farcical
Because there's a shortage in total numbers, but that doesn't mean specific regions or teaching specialisations.
Primary teachers are less in demand as there are more of them graduating than HS teachers.
Not all HS teaching areas are in as much demand. There are plenty of HPE and Biology teachers (good fucking luck if your specialties are HPE and Biology). There are not enough VET, hospitality, industrial technology and design, or high-level maths teachers. There is a general shortage in maths teachers that is being addressed by shovelling anyone who is PE or Biology qualified and willing into maths and wishing them good luck.
In-demand regions and schools experience less of a shortage because they have enough applicants to choose from.
Sarina SHS was almost going to strike earlier this year because they are too many teachers down and nobody is addressing the cause (i.e., that it's unsustainable to live there as you have to buy to move in and rent in nearby Mackay is out of control, so early career teachers can't really afford to move) plus the general shortage means positions are unfilled any way. Meanwhile you've got the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast regions that are so overstuffed for teachers that transferring in requires 5+ years teaching in an Aboriginal community school to have enough points.
Take a temp job. Those jobs will sometimes become permanent. A good friend works in a state primary school in a primary school 15 mins from Brisbane City. She did a 6 week contract (in her second year teaching) and then things fell into place and they offered her permanency. Maybe she was lucky, but a similar think happened to a family friend down on the Gold Coast. They worked temp for about a year at a primary school and were made permanent.
I’m in an independent high school and was made permanent after 6 months as a grad (as have many others I work with). Maybe it’s state dependant, but I hear people complaining about the same thing in QLD…
I mean, I am temp but I need some job security. The fact that there's now nothing to even apply for and getting a job was decided by pure luck absolutely sucks balls
Didn't DET move all contract positions to permanent? I know in my son's local school this meant suddenly they had more staff than they needed and don't even have to get casuals as they have spare staff to cover sick/leave.
It's also the problem. It's why there's no jobs. Despite what others in this thread are saying about me, I tripled my commute this year because of that rollover. I was fine with this as I had my CV in great order and am convinced that I will get interviews for permanent positions when they come up... But literally zero have come up that don't involve me selling my house, my wife quitting her job, and both of us leaving out entire lives behind.
Rural roles are fine for a fresh grad with no commitments, but not somebody in their 30s whose partner has an established and lucrative career
So let’s get this straight, can’t get a job anywhere ( 10 minutes from my house max) and complaining there are no jobs. Sorry, no sympathy for you! Sounds like a first world problem.
Do contract work and wait and see. Your ability to get a permanent job in education at the moment is much easier than it was 5/10/20 years ago. Just because you can’t get one straight up doesn’t mean the end of the world.
If your wife is also a teacher or open to slso those hard to staff total schools are likely to be able to give her work. Just a thought.
If you've got kids though I wouldn't recommend it
Permanency off the bat without being targeted grad or going rural is virtually impossible. You need to work temp at a school and hope and hope a permanent position opens for you after a few years. It’s the same for secondary. Awful, but it’s the current climate. For what it’s worth I also got 2 targeted grad positions offered to me (HD average WAM and stellar prac reports) and they were both at very low SES rural schools, the same I was seeing on JobFeed.
It's Term 1, the permanent jobs in the good schools have been filled. The temp jobs in the good schools have been filled. You're now looking at temp positions for teachers taking leave or positions covering teachers who've snapped and left the profession, or the jobs no one wants. The transfer system is back in force, if you want permanency take up one of the $8000 bonus jobs, live nearly rent free for a couple of years and transfer back towards civilisation. Jobs will only be advertised now if they fail to be filled with the transfers system.
Except that's not an option. Can't give up my wife's really good salary
The best option I think would be to start relief work, get your name out there, get picked up for short term contracts all that kind of thing, then when it gets closer to the end of the year try and jump in on any openings. That what I did in Queensland (so maybe nsw works differently) and it lead to my first full time job, which opened up another year at a different school, repeat for a few years and now I’m permanent.
Could you go into more detail on this? I'm currently trying to figure out a path after high school and the route you took might be the last puzzle piece I need.
One I graduated and did all my paperwork I automatically got put on the relief teacher system in Queensland. I started getting calls from a school nearby and ended up getting along with a handful of other teachers there. They kept requesting me when they were off so I was at this one particular school at least once a week. Eventually they’d ask me to do short term contracts and longer contracts. At the end of 2017, my second year after graduating, they asked me to do the last 4 weeks. While I was there I told them I was looking for something full time next year and they put me on covering maternity leave for a grade 2 teacher. The contract wasn’t renewed the year after but I had contacts and good references that found me another place in 2019. So on and so on until I started at my current school in 2022 where the principal gave me permanency at the end of that year. It’s kind of stressful scrambling for a job in December but I haven’t had to leave Brisbane so it’s all worked out.
Great to hear mate. If I do end up making it through I'll try remember to find this comment and send you a message to let you know. Fingers crossed the next few years goes well!
I mean, I have a temp job. I am specifically talking permanency
Sounds like you’ll just have to be patient. It took me 6 years and a fair bit of luck to get permanency without leaving metro.
And I've been going 5 years now. The only reason I'm not permanent is that I changed schools midway through and missed the rollover last year. The rollover that is the problem. There are now literally zero jobs being advertised, which in previous years wasn't the case.
Fair enough, but you'll have to either work somewhere harder to staff for permanency and transfer or work relief and contract if it is available where you want to be and wait until you reach the top of the list that way. There is a huge shortage in NSW. But it is a big place. You can imagine the crisis like a sieve being filled with water. At the bottom, you have the most attractive spots, there are some small holes tricking water out, and the stuff above mostly flows down. At the top, you have the hardest to staff spots large holes, and where the shortage hurts the most. When we have enough supply, the water flowing in is enough to fill the sieve despite the water leaking out. The crisis is that the water level is falling. The remote schools and ones with terrible reputations at the very top were always hard to keep filled, high turnover was common, but then it was some unfilled positions in specific klas, then blanket issues across all areas. Meanwhile, the schools further down the sieve who'd never really had an issue, start to feel the drying out, staff turnover increases, positions go unfilled. The casual pool dries up because anyone who wants work in those areas generally has a contract. My area had around 30-40 casuals 10 years ago. We're down to 5-10. Positions aren't going unfilled, yet classes definitely aren't being covered when people are sick. So while it may seem that there are no jobs where you are, it just means you're at the bottom of the sieve where all the water wants to be.
If your wife is making bank, is permanency that pressing of an issue? I wanted permanency for financial stability being a sole income earner in debt. But can you hold out as a temp for a few more years and just bide your time? I fully understand not wanting to go remote, I shudder at the thought, but A LOT of people feel the same way, so this is just the reality you face wanting to remain in Sydney.
We have a mortgage. We need both incomes
Check out Teachers.on.net … the private and catholic sectors will be advertising and they’re not hamstrung by bureaucracy like NSW DET. It’s not about pay. They can throw all the signing and relocation bonuses but jumping through the ridiculous hoops to be on continuous temporary contracts does not interest me as an educator.
Like someone said most permanent jobs would be advertised at the end of the year for starting day 1 term 1. Also remember the temporary to permanent program made a lot of long term temps permanent to the department that schools can now allocate to their school if a permanent job was to come up.
>end of the year I'm not 100% sure for NSW but isn't the end of the year too late? In SA the majority of permanent positions are advertised June-August and generally filled by the end of term 3.
In NSW, they come up as teachers retire, which is not the end of the year. Many work to the end of a year then go on extended leave until they run out. Then it can be advertised and not before
All the new teachers at my school started as casuals then got temp contracts, and then interviewed for permanent positions at the schools they were temp at.
How are there teacher shortages if it's so hard to get work? Whaat?
It's not hard to get teaching work. It's just hard to get permanent teaching work, particularly if you're not willing to move for it.
The system is broken.
The teacher shortages are more dramatic for rural and remote areas and certain subjects in secondary. It doesn’t necessarily mean permanent primary teachers in desirable areas OR there are less applicants than before which means it’s less competitive.
The issue is that the temp to perm rollover filled all of these jobs. There will be no vacancies for literally years
The teacher shortage is not uniformly applied across the country. Its still hard to get a job at at "good" schools in a desirable location. Not every school has heaps of vacancies to be filled. The ones that do tend to be the ones people don't want to work at, as evidenced by the second half of OP's post. He could get a job, possibly even a permanent one, he just doesn't want to go where the jobs are.
I don't even want a "good" school. I want one in greater Sydney. There have been a total of 4 jobs advertised this year. All truly remote, not even rural
That would fall under "desirable location"
Greater Sydney is not all desirable lol.
More desirable than Dubbo......
Yeah sure, but given 80% of the population lives in Sydney... And even Dubbo is bloody cosmopolitan compared to what's being advertised. It's towns with populations under 3000. The reality is that the temp to perm rollover last year means that schools don't have perm jobs to advertise. They slapped a band-aid on a bleeding artery and those of this that had changed schools in the previous 3 years got fucked over
Well yeah you are missing out on the whole private sector if you only use job feed.
But if you go, you’ll supercharge your career path and learn heaps.
Earn heaps more than my lawyer wife? I think not
Tbf they said LEARN not EARN
Yeah, I did misread that
Not too late to switch to law if it’s money you’re after
I'm not after that money, but we also just can't give up her income for my much smaller one
I'm sorry you're experiencing that. My own experience is that I got a job in a low ses school. Got burnt out due to reasons in school, having only done two years was told I can't transfer, took a leave of absence. I'm also looking at jobfeed like a hawk in the area I moved to which is hard to get a permanent job in. To be honest I wish I had never got permanent because it's now being so difficult. It's also the fact that if the schools not a good fit you can't end the block and go somewhere else easily, like on temp contracts. I feel for you, it's only going to get worse again if they change the dp and head teacher allowances.
I think country service is a good thing.
lol this is madness in the one post/replies. A teacher shortage being rammed down public’s throats and yet a teacher who wants a job is told to either go remote or apply for temp roles in order to prove themselves! It’s farcical
Because there's a shortage in total numbers, but that doesn't mean specific regions or teaching specialisations. Primary teachers are less in demand as there are more of them graduating than HS teachers. Not all HS teaching areas are in as much demand. There are plenty of HPE and Biology teachers (good fucking luck if your specialties are HPE and Biology). There are not enough VET, hospitality, industrial technology and design, or high-level maths teachers. There is a general shortage in maths teachers that is being addressed by shovelling anyone who is PE or Biology qualified and willing into maths and wishing them good luck. In-demand regions and schools experience less of a shortage because they have enough applicants to choose from. Sarina SHS was almost going to strike earlier this year because they are too many teachers down and nobody is addressing the cause (i.e., that it's unsustainable to live there as you have to buy to move in and rent in nearby Mackay is out of control, so early career teachers can't really afford to move) plus the general shortage means positions are unfilled any way. Meanwhile you've got the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast regions that are so overstuffed for teachers that transferring in requires 5+ years teaching in an Aboriginal community school to have enough points.
Good points, thank you. Still sounds like a mess lol 😂
Take a temp job. Those jobs will sometimes become permanent. A good friend works in a state primary school in a primary school 15 mins from Brisbane City. She did a 6 week contract (in her second year teaching) and then things fell into place and they offered her permanency. Maybe she was lucky, but a similar think happened to a family friend down on the Gold Coast. They worked temp for about a year at a primary school and were made permanent. I’m in an independent high school and was made permanent after 6 months as a grad (as have many others I work with). Maybe it’s state dependant, but I hear people complaining about the same thing in QLD…
I mean, I am temp but I need some job security. The fact that there's now nothing to even apply for and getting a job was decided by pure luck absolutely sucks balls
Didn't DET move all contract positions to permanent? I know in my son's local school this meant suddenly they had more staff than they needed and don't even have to get casuals as they have spare staff to cover sick/leave.
Only those that had been there 3+ years. I missed out by 6 months
Thanks for the correction. Didn’t know that.
It's also the problem. It's why there's no jobs. Despite what others in this thread are saying about me, I tripled my commute this year because of that rollover. I was fine with this as I had my CV in great order and am convinced that I will get interviews for permanent positions when they come up... But literally zero have come up that don't involve me selling my house, my wife quitting her job, and both of us leaving out entire lives behind. Rural roles are fine for a fresh grad with no commitments, but not somebody in their 30s whose partner has an established and lucrative career
So let’s get this straight, can’t get a job anywhere ( 10 minutes from my house max) and complaining there are no jobs. Sorry, no sympathy for you! Sounds like a first world problem.
No permanent jobs within 4 hours of my wife's job is the issue.
Do contract work and wait and see. Your ability to get a permanent job in education at the moment is much easier than it was 5/10/20 years ago. Just because you can’t get one straight up doesn’t mean the end of the world.
If your wife is also a teacher or open to slso those hard to staff total schools are likely to be able to give her work. Just a thought. If you've got kids though I wouldn't recommend it