Graduate glut puts trainee teachers on the scrapheap, Anna Pat

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Reader's Comment, Graduate glut puts trainee teachers on the scrapheap, Anna Patty, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 October 2014

Finding a permanent job has been a problem for teachers in NSW since 1998.

Removing the cap on uni places has added more teachers to the pool waiting for employment, however teacher unemployment has been a problem for years.

I graduated with two friends who completed teaching degrees in 1998.

They both took several years to find permanent positions.

One of these graduates was a tough six-foot-tall man and the Education Department used him as a substitute teacher in the worst public schools in the Sydney metro area for five years before they offered him a permanent role.

The other 1998 graduate was a female who only found a permanent role, after three years of searching, by moving to country NSW where the vacancies existed.

There are a lot of issues associated with why this is happening and the problem is not just that there are too many education graduates.

Teachers are also working longer to save for retirement (and the government wants them to work till they are 70).

If jobs are available in other parts of the state or country, it is not always easy to up and move your life for a job (especially an unknown job).

There has been a downturn in the number of people hired in nearly all industries (especially government funded industries).

And the list goes on and on.

Col, Sydney.