Career Start is a nation-leading program for early career teachers in their first year, which aims to improve their experience as they are inducted into the teaching profession.
Career Start provides a range of supports to these teachers and their mentors to accelerate the development of their professional practice and support their wellbeing, identity and belonging through:
- a further reduction in time release from face-to-face teaching to engage with induction supports
- a dedicated mentor to accelerate the development of their teaching practice
- networking opportunities within local learning alliances led by a dedicated Learning Alliance Leader (LAL)
- targeted professional learning to prepare them for the profession.
Career Start is one part of a system-wide induction to the profession, delivered to complement existing in-school orientation.
Following a successful pilot from 2021 to 2023 and expansion to 13 department areas in 2025, Career Start is now available across all Victorian government schools in 13 areas:
- Barwon
- Brimbank Melton
- Central Highlands
- Goulburn
- Hume Merri-bek
- Inner Gippsland
- Mallee
- North Eastern Melbourne
- Outer Eastern Melbourne
- Outer Gippsland
- Ovens-Murray
- Southern Melbourne
- Western Melbourne.
Career Start is not currently available outside of the 13 listed areas.
Early career teachers beyond their first year of teaching, or those in non-Career Start areas, are encouraged to visit the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership (VATL) for professional development opportunities.
Mentoring early career teachers: A rapid literature scan prepared by the Australian Education Research Organisation
This rapid literature scan was commissioned by the Career Start Policy and Implementation Unit.
It summarises recent evidence about effective mentoring practice for early career teachers.
The report provides insights from research. It also provides assessments of the strength of the evidence.
The scan focuses on 3 aspects of mentoring:
- The nature of the mentor-mentee relationship
- How mentors should best apportion their time across different activities
- The characteristics of effective lesson observation.
Download the report
- Mentoring Early Career Teachers – a rapid literature scan (PDF, 1MB)
- Mentoring Early Career Teachers – a rapid literature scan (DOCX, 540KB)
More information
To find out more about the Career Start program, please contact career.start@education.vic.gov.au or visit the Policy Advisory Library at Career Start: Policy | education.vic.gov.au
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