Teacher education

Key Facts

Teacher education refers to formal programs for the preparation of those entering the teaching profession, as well as the development of those already in the profession.
Initial teacher education (ITE) is the foundational training that allows individuals to register to teach in Australia. It equips pre-service teachers with essential skills, knowledge and dispositions to be successful teachers.
In Australia in 2023:
- 24,864 students commenced an ITE program, a 0.4% decrease from 2022.
- Nearly half (48%) of all commencing ITE students were studying completely or partly online in 2023, an increase from 2022 (46%).
- 16,030 students completed an ITE program, a decrease of 3% from 2022.
Between 2017 and 2023, ITE completions fell at an average rate of 2.6% per year, while the Australian student-aged population grew at an average rate of 1%. Growth in the student-aged population continues to outpace ITE completions over time, which may exacerbate any existing shortages in the national teacher workforce.

Why does ACARA report on teacher education?

Developing quality teachers is critical to developing quality education systems. Teachers are one of the most important school related influences on student achievement. It is also essential to achieving the goals of excellence and equity in education set out in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, where Quality teaching and leadership is one of the 11 areas for action.

Data on commencements and completions of ITE courses allows government and policymakers to monitor the future supply of teaching staff and the demand for teacher education. It can assist in evaluating the effectiveness of teacher education policies and help to inform decision making in education policy and planning.

What information is reported?

The Australian Teacher Workforce Data (ATWD), published online by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), offers crucial insights into the pipeline of new teachers as they move through ITE and enter the workforce.

The data is derived primarily from annual data collected as part of the Higher Education Student Data Collection. Through the ATWD data linkage model, this data is improved through connection to information provided by Teacher Regulatory Authorities, the Australian Teacher Workforce survey, and the Australian Government Department of Education Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) surveys.

AITSL undertake a range of checks and corrections including consolidation of registration data across jurisdictions; using a teacher's highest registration status for national reporting; identifying missing course completions; and evaluating all initial teacher education courses based on the course length, course name, and degree-level.

The ATWD Data portal provides interactive visualisations with options to disaggregate data by degree level, program type, remoteness, socio-economic status and state.

Detailed data on trends in commencements, completions and completion rates for Initial Teacher Education, disaggregated by student and study characteristics, is available on the Australian Teacher Workforce (ATWD) data portal, published by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).

Notes and caveats

The Australian Government Department of Education's teacher education data for 2010 to 2023 is available for download as an excel spreadsheet here.

Other sources of ITE data

The Australian Government Department of Education's latest published ITE data can be sourced here: 2024 Section 8 Special courses - Department of Education, Australian Government (Australian Government Department of Education, Higher Education Student Statistics).