Source: Reserve Bank of Australia
17 June 2025
The Importance of Early Learning
Research demonstrates that high-quality early childhood education lays the foundation for lifelong learning, social development, and emotional wellbeing. Children who undertake two years of preschool typically do better at school, are more engaged in education and are more likely to remain engaged in education, meaning they are also more likely to seek out tertiary education such as TAFE. TAFE is central to stemming skills shortages for qualified early learning educators, but early learning teachers and educators are also essential for the TAFE workforce and TAFE students and their children, to not only allow parents and guardians to participate fully in work, but for their child’s development. A child’s brain grows to near-adult size in the first five years of life. This stunning period of development is crucial in determining whether children thrive and what their life chances and educational experiences are like down the track. Overwhelming international evidence shows that high-quality early childhood education is essential during these first years – even more so for vulnerable children who experience any kind of disadvantage. Yet the shortsighted perception persists (even in 2025!) that looking after babies, toddlers and preschoolers is low-skilled women’s work – with the main purpose of boosting parents’ economic participation.
Valuing Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)
“I can’t count the number of times people say to me, ‘Kinder’s just Play-Doh and finger-painting isn’t it?’,” says Cara Nightingale, formerly a primary and kindergarten teacher in Victoria and now AEU Victorian Branch vice president, early childhood. AEU early childhood members may be degree-qualified preschool teachers, diploma-level educators who work in funded kinder programs, or Certificate III educators who work in funded kinder programs. Despite lingering dinosaur attitudes, Nightingale says: “Over the last few years we’ve seen significant progress in politicians and the broader community acknowledging the skill, expertise and importance of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC).”
She says the quality of TAFE qualifications have helped in external recognition of the skill sets required in ECEC. “To deliver high-quality ECEC you need a workforce that is highly qualified and provided with wraparound supports and resources for retention, along with professional pay and working conditions that are reflective of the important work of Early Childhood teachers and educators,” Nightingale says.
Victorian Union Wins
Recent union wins in Victoria, a state that leads the country in ECEC sector bargaining, are driving change, Nightingale says. “When AEU early childhood members achieved pay parity with school teachers it was a significant win,” she says. “They are the only kinder teachers across the country that have achieved pay parity with school teachers.”
Three Days Guaranteed
More good news for the sector came in February with the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three Day Guarantee) Bill 2025, which guarantees families three days of subsidised early learning per week and eliminates the discriminatory activity test that previously restricted access based on parents’ work or study status.
Policy Progress Since 2022
Since the Albanese government came to office in 2022, there have been a number of significant industrial relations reforms, funding boosts and initiatives in the sector, including:
- The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers Bill 2024
- A 15 per cent pay rise for early educators, to be phased in over two years
- A $1 billion fund to build or expand early learning centres in under-served areas
- The introduction of Free TAFE for priority employment areas, which has seen 35,500 enrolments in ECEC alone
- The Fair Work Commission’s decision to grant multi-employer bargaining rights.
Nightingale says multi-employer bargaining is an important shift of the power balance back towards the workforce and members, and directly led to significant ECEC member pay increases in Victoria. Nightingale also applauds the Victorian government’s moves to build state-funded early childhood services in places the market won’t.
Childcare Deserts: The Last Frontier
Finding any childcare, let alone affordable or high-quality learning options, remains a problem for many parents, especially those in regional and rural areas. A 2022 Mitchell Institute report found that around 35 per cent of the Australian population lived in what is classified as a ‘childcare desert’ – where there were more than three children per available childcare place. In places like Whyalla, Port Lincoln and Port Pirie in South Australia, around five children were competing for each place. Even worse, 1.1 million Australians live where there are simply no childcare and early learning services at all.
The Case for Public Provision
“There are just so many gaps,” says Thrive by Five’s Weatherill. “We are still far away from a universal, high-quality, and affordable early learning system the way we have it in place for maternal health services and primary schools.
With the current system, we hand out a voucher and ask people to go shopping for childcare. That’s fine if you can find a service at the right price, but if you have children with special needs or you live in the country, or you’re a single mum or in a remote Aboriginal community, there are these gaps because the market [only] provides things that are easy to provide where they can make a dollar.” This is why public provision of ECEC as an essential service, like public TAFE, is important.
TAFE: An Essential Pipeline
Early indicators suggest things are moving in the right direction – the ECEC workforce has grown by more than 30,000 since Labor took office, and job vacancies in the sector dropped by 22 per cent in 2024 according to Jobs and Skills Australia. Far greater numbers of skilled graduates will be needed in the near future according to the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), which estimates that an additional 85,000 ECEC workers are required to raise Australia’s provision to the OECD average by 2030 and a doubling of the sector by adding almost 260,000 workers to match provision in Nordic countries. Publicly funded TAFE and Free places will be required in large numbers to ramp up this ECEC workforce, providing the Cert III or Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care. “The provision of free or low-cost TAFE for early educators is crucial in the workforce development story,” says Weatherill. “Degree-based teachers are important, but the overwhelming majority of early educators will be certificate and diploma qualified, and they’ll overwhelmingly be provided by TAFE.” “It’s all connected,” says Cara Nightingale. “Having properly funded TAFE and well-paid teachers is part of it, but so too is providing the additional supports for things like numeracy and literacy that we need.” She says another key benefit of retaining teachers is that they mentor the next generation, ensuring that their skills, knowledge and love of teaching continues.
By Rochelle Siemienowicz
This article was originally published in The Australian TAFE Teacher, Autumn 2025