The Sydney Institute for Community Languages Education – SICLE has created and launched programmes for nearly 2,000 teachers with degrees from abroad in order to help them become certified teachers for Australian schools. Sixty of them have already started the Master of Teaching programmes and will start working in local schools in 2021. It is the only programme that acts as a bridge for teachers with degrees from abroad.
Professor Ken Cruickshank, who set up the fast-track teacher training programmes at Western Sydney University and the Australian Catholic University (ACU) said: “It is easier to become a doctor than a teacher if you have a degree from abroad.”
“Too many teachers, with high qualifications and many years of teaching experience from abroad, get lost in the system,” stressed Professor Cruickshank. He also said that it was very difficult for them to find information and a way to orient themselves because they had been pursuing the wrong educational programmes in the past. “We need teachers in New South Wales,” he added, “but the system simply does not employ qualified people.” “The problem is bigger than people think.”
In addition, he added that there were more than 2,000 teachers with teaching experience from abroad who were not officially certified in Australia and almost 90% of whom being women. “There are teachers with long teaching experience who are trying to strike the right balance between family and work and to adapt to a new country. They need to be informed and to be offered support,” said the professor. “Our new programme requires two to three years so as to be certified by the Australian State. It is a professional pathway for newly arrived immigrants and refugees.”
It is noteworthy that there will be 100 jobs available for the year 2021.
Source: vema.com.au