La Trobe University has welcomed an announcement by the Federal Government of $7.4 million to extend its award-winning Nexus program for another three years.
Nexus enables people to transition to teaching from other careers while gaining practical experience in a school setting.
The latest funding will allow the program to extend to secondary teaching in NSW, following its successful introduction to primary schools in July this year.
La Trobe’s Associate Dean Partnerships Professor Miriam Tanti said Nexus was designed to address teacher workforce shortages across Australia, especially in socially disadvantaged, regional, rural and remote locations.
“We are so pleased to have received this Federal funding. This is an opportunity for us to continue to offer Nexus as a way to lessen the financial and geographic barriers to attract and support career changers as they transition into the teaching profession.”
Nexus was launched in Victoria in 2020 in a first-of-its-kind pathway into secondary teaching, enabling people to transition from other careers while gaining practical experience in a school setting.
One year after completing the Nexus program, graduate data shows 94 per cent of students are working as teachers.
“The success of our current Nexus program is evident not only in its ability to prepare teachers for employment in schools across Victoria and NSW but also in its strong capacity to attract and retain people from diverse backgrounds and with expertise from a range of fields including STEM into the teaching profession,” Professor Tanti said.
“We have succeeded in graduating cohorts of secondary school teaching in hard-to-staff schools across diverse geographic regions in Victoria and look forward to graduating our first primary intake mid next year.”
The latest funding will be provided under the Government’s High Achieving Teachers (HAT) Program, as part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.
Nexus participants receive mentoring and support to retrain as teachers and are paid for their practical teaching experience.
The new funding will ensure La Trobe continues to work with primary and secondary hard-to-staff schools across Victoria and NSW.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the HAT program recruited and trained more school teachers in areas that needed them most.
“We don’t remember much about when we are little but most of us remember our teacher’s names,” Minister Clare said.
“That shows just how important our teachers are and the impact they have on us. And we don’t have enough of them.”
Nexus participants complete a Master of Teaching, engaging in studies while working as paraprofessionals in schools.
Key to the success of the program is the integration of evidence-informed Science of Learning and Reading (SOLAR) approach, for which La Trobe is world-leading.
Students also receive support and tailored instruction to address the unique needs of their respective urban, regional or remote schools.
Impact of Nexus so far:
- 83 per cent of Victorian participants have graduated or on track to graduate.
- 94 per cent of Victorian participants were teaching after graduating from the Nexus program
- 82 per cent of Victorian graduates are teaching in schools with an Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) value below or equal to 1000.
- All NSW participants are career changers.
CAPTION: Federal Education Minister Jason Clare with Nexus student Lachlan Mahoney at Rooty Hill Public School in NSW.
