Directory of programs

Encouraging more people from all backgrounds to choose a career in early childhood education

• Best Start, Best Life communications campaign, with resources that can be printed and shared across your communities and services.

Improving the accessibility and quality of pre-service training

• Early Childhood Scholarships to support people to study or upskill to become early childhood teachers.
• Certificate III Upskill Support Program to provide financial support for Certificate III qualified educators working in funded kindergarten programs to upskill to a Diploma.
• Aboriginal Pathway Scholarships to support people to study to become early childhood educators or teachers.
• Innovative Initial Teacher Education allows Diploma-level qualified staff to upskill to become qualified early childhood teachers with support, while they continue to work.
• Early Childhood Tertiary partnerships program to provide a range of tailored supports to help students complete their early childhood educator and teacher qualifications and join the workforce.
• Free TAFE for a Certificate III or a Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care, with students who’ve undertaken the Certificate III as Free TAFE also eligible to undertake the Diploma.
• Early Childhood Educator Traineeships which support students to work in an early childhood education service while completing their educator qualification.

Enhancing the transition from study to practice

• Financial incentives for early childhood teachers and educators to join or re-join the sector, or to take up a position in a kindergarten program at selected hard-to-staff locations and services.
• Early Childhood Jobs, a free website that connects early childhood education professionals with employers seeking to fill vacancies across Victoria.
• Recruitment supports provided by a panel of specialist recruitment agencies to support eligible services and providers to employ teachers and educators, and to boost the overall workforce supply by attracting early childhood professionals from outside the sector, interstate and overseas.
• Provisionally Registered Teacher (PRT) Grants Program provides funding to early childhood services supporting PRTs to progress from provisional to full registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching.
• Mentor support to help provisionally registered teachers move to full teacher registration through Gowrie Victoria.
• Beginning Teacher Conferences for teachers in the beginning stages of their careers.

Supporting career development and workforce wellbeing

• Career supports for teachers in their first 5 years of teaching including Communities of Practice, Early Learning Networks, webinars, and an online community platform.
• Innovation Grants, available to support new and emerging retention initiatives to support the retention of the early career teachers and educators needed for the Best Start, Best Life reforms.
• Returning Teachers and Educators Coaching Program for teachers and educators returning to or joining the Victorian early childhood workforce.
• Early Years Learning Networks offer opportunities for local collaboration and professional connection for early childhood teachers and educational leaders. Contact your local Early Childhood Improvement Branch for more information.

Supporting effective leadership

• Capability Assessment Guide to support teachers and providers undertaking career progression capability assessments.
• Effective Mentoring Program for experienced teachers to enhance their mentoring knowledge and skills to support graduate and returning teachers achieve full registration.
• Coach and Mentor Training for experienced teachers and educators to develop coaching and mentoring skills.
• Early Learning Leadership Forums are delivered twice a year in central locations across Victoria, to bring together early childhood leaders to network and connect, engage with the department, and build shared understanding of early childhood reforms. Contact your local Early Childhood Improvement Branch for more information.

Comprehensive approach to maintaining and lifting practice quality

• Early Years Assessment and Learning Tool enables early childhood teachers and co-educators to make consistent observations and assessments of children’s learning.
• School Readiness Funding supports 3-year-old and 4-year-old children in early childhood education and care services delivering funded kindergarten programs in Victoria.