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Speaker 1: More teachers are on the way. They just have to

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Speaker 1: pass university first, of course. So Johnny me now is

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Speaker 1: Chris Abercrombie from the PPTA. He's the president, and good

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Speaker 1: morning to you, Chris, Good morning. So why are more

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Speaker 1: young people keen to get into teaching? What's changed?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's great that they've got an increase in these numbers,

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Speaker 2: and it's fantastic to see the two things that have

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Speaker 2: helped teachers people. We know the tough economic times, people

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Speaker 2: like to become teachers. They see it is a good

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Speaker 2: career move. But also I think there's just young people

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Speaker 2: want to make a difference. They like jobs they feel

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Speaker 2: make a difference in teaching is one of them.

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Speaker 1: Can Erica Stamford and the government take credit for these

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Speaker 1: numbers or were we always going to see a bounce back.

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Speaker 2: I think there's obviously some things that they've done, Like

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Speaker 2: I think the stipend available to support people into the

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Speaker 2: career has been fantastic and very helpful. Unfortunately, the numbers

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Speaker 2: overall are still less than what we had in the

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Speaker 2: early two thousands, but there's definitely tracking in the right direction.

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Speaker 1: Will this help the teacher shortage.

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Speaker 2: In the short term? No, in the long term possibly,

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Speaker 2: so we're still going to have to rely on overseas

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Speaker 2: trained teachers for this. But it's a good sign that

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Speaker 2: we're moving in the right direction. But there's still work

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Speaker 2: to be done.

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Speaker 1: And looking at the numbers, the primary teachers are up

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Speaker 1: the most, and then we've got the secondary teachers and

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Speaker 1: then the early childhood education teachers. Does that reflect the

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Speaker 1: order of need in terms of teacher shortages.

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Speaker 2: No, unfortunately it doesn't. So we know in secondary we

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Speaker 2: need subject specialist teachers. There's one of our key issues

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Speaker 2: is that there's no guarantee that the teacher in front

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Speaker 2: of the young person is a subject specialist. So we

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Speaker 2: have that significant need in our sector.

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Speaker 1: Is we're talking about that. We hear about the low

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Speaker 1: bar for university entrances at the moment, and so i'd

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Speaker 1: have to ask if you're needing these specialist teachers. Are

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Speaker 1: new teachers coming out of UNI with enough skill to

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Speaker 1: get straight into the workforce, and are they coming out

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Speaker 1: with the skills that you need to fulfill those shortages.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's definitely the first two years of your time

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Speaker 2: out of the teacher. Training out of the university is really important.

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Speaker 2: So you're sort of continuing that training. So schools need

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Speaker 2: to be there to upskill them. Unfortunately, with the shortages

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Speaker 2: that we're experiencing and and those issues, that can be

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Speaker 2: harder to do that, but it's just vital that we

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Speaker 2: give the support to do that as well. Well.

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Speaker 1: It's all good news and I thank you, Chris. Have

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Speaker 1: a Crombie PPTA present on the news that we're getting

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Speaker 1: more teachers. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

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Speaker 2: Listen live to news Talks it be from five am weekdays,

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