Career opportunities and support

You now have access to even more professional support and financial incentives.

From 2023, the Victorian Government has made kindergarten free for three- and four-year-old children at participating services and we need more teachers and educators to give children the best start. Register your interest to hear more about the opportunities and incentives available in Victoria.

Find an early childhood job

The Early Childhood Jobs website connects early childhood education professionals with employers seeking to fill vacancies across Victoria.

Search and apply for a job

This website is free to use and lists employment opportunities for teachers, educators, directors and support staff across the sector, no matter where they’re located around Victoria.

Financial incentives to take up a teaching role

There are two types of financial incentives available for qualified early childhood teachers from June 2023 to June 2024:

Individual Incentives of $9,000 are available for eligible early childhood teachers working outside the Victorian early childhood sector to take up a teaching role at any service delivering, or planning to deliver, funded Three-Year-Old Kindergarten in 2024.
Location Incentives of between $9,000 to $50,000 are available for eligible early childhood teachers who secure a teaching role at selected services.

Eligible applicants who meet the criteria for both types of incentives will be able to receive both payments.

A relocation supplement of between $1,000 and $8,000 will be available for any eligible incentive recipient who relocates more than 100 km from their current place of residence to take up the role.

Find out more about eligibility settings for both incentives and relocation supplements and how to apply in the Victorian Early Childhood Teacher Incentives Program Guidelines (PDF, 299KB).

Financial incentives to take up an educator role

There are two types of financial incentives available for qualified early childhood educators from June 2023 to June 2024:

Educator Individual Incentives of $9,000 for eligible educators working outside funded kindergarten in the Victorian early childhood education sector, to take up a role in a kindergarten program at any service delivering funded Three-Year-Old Kindergarten in 2024.
Educator Location Incentives of $9,000 for eligible educators to take up a role in a funded kindergarten program at selected services.

Eligible applicants who meet the criteria for both types of incentives will be able to receive both payments.

A relocation supplement of between $1,000 and $8,000 will be available for any eligible incentive recipient who relocates more than 100 km from their current place of residence to take up the role.

Find out more about eligibility settings for both incentives and relocation supplements and how to apply in the Targeted Educator Incentives Program Guidelines (PDF, 329KB).

Hear about Megan's experience

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What financial incentive is right for me?

Individual Incentives worth $9,000 are available for eligible early childhood teacher and educators working in a different sector or industry to take up a role in any service in Victoria delivering funded Three-Year-Old Kindergarten.
This includes:
- qualified early childhood teachers and educators who have not yet worked in the Victorian sector or who have been working in another sector for the past 12 months, or
- dual-qualified teachers currently working in primary schools
You may also be eligible for a Location Incentive if you take up a role at a select service delivering funded Three-Year-Old Kindergarten.
To register or re-register as a teacher, visit the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) Returning to teaching from non-practising webpage. You can also check if your qualification allows you to teach in Victoria on the ACECQA website.
Individual Incentives worth $9,000, plus relocation support, are available for eligible early childhood teachers or educators moving from another state, territory or from overseas.
You may also be eligible for a Location Incentive if you take up a role at a select service delivering funded Three-Year-Old Kindergarten.
To teach in Victoria you must be registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT). Check your qualification first on the ACECQA website. If you’re registered in another Australian state or territory, or overseas you can then apply to VIT for registration using the ‘Mutual Recognition’ pathway.
If you hold a qualification from outside Australia or New Zealand, and it is not already listed as approved on the ACECQA website, you can apply to ACECQA to have it assessed for equivalence.
Read more about early childhood careers in Victoria.

Professional development, mentoring and support

We want to ensure that every child can access quality kindergarten. This means supporting you, your practice and your career.

View the full range of professional development and career information for early childhood professionals.

If you’re a new or provisionally registered early childhood teacher in your first five years of teaching, you will have access to:
- funding to support you to work with a mentor to become fully registered with VIT
- beginning teacher conferences to support your induction into the sector
- at least five hours of coaching in your first year of teaching, and ‘communities of practice’ to work through specific areas of skill development in your second and third year of teaching
- an alumni network to help you and other teachers who have completed these programs stay connected and share professional growth and expertise.
If you’re seeking to network and expand your leadership skills, you could take part in:
- the Effective Mentoring Program, to help you become a mentor, giving you skills to guide provisionally registered teachers to develop their teaching practice and become fully registered
- your local Early Years Learning Network, which brings together local early childhood teachers for collaborative learning and peer support. These facilitated networks are available to all teachers in funded kindergarten programs each term and enable you to develop new knowledge and deepen your understanding of emerging evidence based contemporary practice.
These new resources are designed to support your practice as you help to plan and deliver quality programs:
- The Three-Year-Old Kindergarten Teaching Toolkit helps services in their first year providing Three-Year-Old Kindergarten. The toolkit includes a range of educational resources and supports teams to deliver high-quality educational programs aligned to the VEYLDF and appropriate to the learning and development needs of three-year-olds.
- The FUSE platform, which gives teachers and educators access to thousands of digital educational resources. (These can also be used by young children and their families to learn at home).

The best boost for our workforce

An additional $159 million boost to the Victorian early childhood workforce means more scholarships and employment incentives will be available for people studying to join, or existing teachers and educators applying to join, the Victorian Three-Year-Old Kindergarten and Pre-Prep workforce.

In addition, there’ll be an expansion of supports to retain and develop our existing workforce, no matter their career stage, including:

opportunities to undertake innovative tertiary education pathways
targeted professional development for teachers and educators
increased mentoring and coaching to support career development and
new ways for teachers and educators to connect and reflect with their peers.

The Victorian Government will continue its collaborative work with the early childhood sector to continue to develop these supports and refresh our Workforce Strategy.

To learn more visit Supporting Victoria’s Kindergarten workforce.

Next steps in Victoria's Kindergarten Workforce Strategy

The Victorian Government released Next steps in Victoria’s Kindergarten Workforce Strategy (PDF, 2.7 MB) in December 2021 following months of consultation with the kindergarten sector about themes contained in the April 2021 policy paper Working Together to Build Victoria's Early Childhood Workforce (PDF, 1.7 MB).

The workforce strategy in Victoria is dynamic and will evolve as the reforms roll out. The total investment in Victoria’s early childhood professionals is now almost $370 million.

The Victorian Government will continue to work with the sector to ensure that our workforce strategy meets the needs of our teachers and educators and supports them to deliver the Best Start Best Life reforms.

We thank the sector for their contributions and engagement with Victoria’s strategy so far. We will continue to encourage and empower the sector to best leverage government investment and take their own actions to build and deliver the kindergarten workforce Victorian children need.

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