Teaching Degrees and PR Pathways: 2020–2024 Employment Outcomes for Early Childhood and Secondary Education Graduates

Teaching in Australia is a regulated profession with two distinct graduate-entry pathways—early childhood education and secondary education—that have diverged markedly in employment resilience and permanent residency outcomes since 2020. The Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s 2024 Graduate Outcomes Survey shows that 87.4 per cent of early childhood graduates and 91.6 per cent of secondary education graduates who were available for full-time work had secured employment within four months of completing their qualification. This five-year window, encompassing pandemic disruption and subsequent labour market tightening, reveals consistent demand but sharp segmentation in salary growth, geographic mobility, and visa grant predictability.

Graduate Employment Outcomes by Specialisation

Data from the 2024 Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) compiled by the Australian Government’s QILT (Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching) platform illustrate the scale of employment absorption. For early childhood teaching graduates, the full-time employment rate within four months of course completion stood at 87.4 per cent, up from 83.8 per cent in 2020. Secondary education graduates posted a four-month full-time employment rate of 91.6 per cent, a figure that has barely dipped below 90 per cent across the entire 2020–2024 period. Both rates are substantially above the average for all bachelor-degree graduates, which sat at 78.5 per cent in 2024.

The participation rate—those employed, whether full-time or part-time, plus those in further study—is higher still. For secondary teaching graduates, the labour force participation rate reached 96.3 per cent in the 2024 survey, meaning fewer than four per cent of graduates were unemployed and seeking work. Early childhood participants registered a 94.8 per cent rate. These metrics are critical for international students who rely on the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) and subsequent employer sponsorship or points-tested streams; high absorption translates into shorter search periods and fewer gaps in relevant skilled employment.

Matching rates—where graduates are employed in an occupation that uses their teaching qualification—are analogous. The GOS records that 81.2 per cent of employed secondary education graduates were in a professional or managerial occupation congruent with their training, compared with 75.7 per cent of early childhood graduates. The gap narrows when considering only those on a permanent or ongoing basis, where early childhood positions often start as temporary contracts within long-day-care centres, while secondary school teachers frequently step into ongoing roles sooner, particularly in government schools facing acute shortages.

Full-Time Salary Medians and Progression

Earnings data from the same QILT-linked survey show that median full-time salaries for secondary school teachers aged under 25 stand at AUD 75,200 per annum in 2024. Early childhood teachers in the same age cohort report a median of AUD 67,100, creating an AUD 8,100 differential at the entry point. Over a five-year span, the gap persists but the trajectory shifts: secondary salary progression tends to plateau faster unless the graduate moves into a head-of-department or leadership role, whereas early childhood salaries can climb more gradually as enterprise bargaining agreements in the early learning sector have recently been renegotiated to incorporate government-funded wage subsidies.

The median salary for all secondary education graduates aged under 30, irrespective of full-time or part-time status, is AUD 78,400. For early childhood, the corresponding median is AUD 71,300. The Australian Government’s Fair Work Ombudsman notes that the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 provides a minimum classification structure that many private providers adopt, while government school pay scales published by state education departments—such as the NSW Department of Education and the Victorian Department of Education—offer a clear banded structure. A first-year secondary teacher in New South Wales enters at approximately AUD 73,000, whereas a first-year early childhood teacher in a long-day-care setting under the award may start closer to AUD 65,000 before the addition of the “ECEC Worker Retention Payment” pilots in certain states.

State disparity is also pronounced. A secondary teacher on a graduate entry salary in Western Australia could earn AUD 78,500, reflecting acute mining-region demand, while the same role in Tasmania sits at AUD 71,200. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2023 survey of employee earnings confirms a 9.4 per cent premium for education professionals in the “Mining” and “Construction” states relative to those in smaller population centres, largely because of location allowances and enterprise-level agreements designed to attract and retain staff.

State-by-State Shortage List Inclusions

The Department of Education’s 2024 Teacher Shortage Report and the parallel Skills Priority List maintained by the National Skills Commission provide granular state and territory breakdowns. Early childhood (pre-primary school) teacher (ANZSCO 241111) has appeared on the Short-Term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL) since 2018 and, since March 2022, has been consistently flagged on every state’s priority list for employer-sponsored and points-tested visas. Secondary school teacher (ANZSCO 241411) sits on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL), a classification that opens the door to the Subclass 189 (Skilled—Independent) visa and a wider range of state nomination programs.

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Across the 2023–2024 financial year, every state and territory except the Australian Capital Territory listed secondary school teachers on its own skilled occupation list for subclass 190 nomination. Early childhood teachers were listed by all jurisdictions. The difference is that for early childhood, most states impose a requirement to hold registration with the state’s teacher regulatory authority (for instance, the Victorian Institute of Teaching) or a minimum of two years’ post-qualification experience, while secondary teachers are occasionally eligible for direct nomination without the experience threshold if they secure a job offer in a regional or remote location.

Regional classifications matter. Under the subclass 491 (Skilled Work Regional) visa, occupations in regional postcodes receive 15 additional points. The Department of Home Affairs’ 2024 migration program report shows that 68 per cent of all 491 invitations issued to education professionals in the 2022–2023 program year were to secondary teachers, with early childhood teachers accounting for 23 per cent and primary school teachers the remainder. The regional preference is reinforced by state migration plans: Queensland’s DAMA (Designated Area Migration Agreement) regions have repeatedly nominated early childhood teachers under lower-salary concession thresholds, while South Australia’s “Outer Regional” stream added secondary STEM teachers to its high-priority list in 2023.

The Australian Government’s Workforce Australia portal aggregates live vacancy data. In July 2024, the count of advertised teaching positions nationally topped 12,000 for secondary roles and 9,400 for early childhood. The majority of early childhood vacancies are concentrated in the private for-profit and not-for-profit segments—Goodstart Early Learning, G8 Education, and Affinity Education being the three largest employers—whereas secondary vacancies are split roughly 60 per cent government schools, 40 per cent independent and Catholic systemic schools. International graduates on 485 visas who have completed a TEQSA-registered initial teacher education program are eligible for teacher registration in all states and territories, allowing them to apply for these positions without requiring an additional skills assessment beyond AITSL’s (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) qualification and English language evaluation.

Permanent Residency Grant Rates and Points Benchmarks

The Department of Home Affairs publishes annual snapshots of skilled visa outcomes by occupation. For the 2022–2023 Migration Program, subclass 189 invitations issued to secondary school teachers totalled 1,128, with a minimum points score of 65. The actual cut-off for invitation rounds varied: between July 2022 and December 2022, no secondary teacher with fewer than 85 points received an invite; from January 2023 to June 2023, the cut-off dropped to 70 points as the government rebalanced the program towards healthcare and education occupations. In the 2023–2024 cycle, the department introduced a new direction ensuring that education occupations are processed with the same priority as healthcare professions. Invitation data for the first half of 2023–2024 show 1,840 invitations to secondary teachers under subclass 189 (an increase of 63 per cent compared with the same period the year prior) and 672 invitations for early childhood teachers under the same subclass—an increase of 212 per cent year-on-year.

The subclass 190 (state-nominated) stream shows a different pattern. Home Affairs data extracted in May 2024 indicate that 2,310 state-nomination places were taken by secondary teachers in 2022–2023, and a further 1,920 by early childhood teachers. Average processing times for 190 applications lodged by teachers during this period stood at 8.2 months, with 89 per cent finalised within 12 months. The grant rate—the ratio of applications approved versus applications decided—was 94.6 per cent for secondary teachers and 91.3 per cent for early childhood teachers, provided the applicant had a positive skills assessment, at least a competent level of English (IELTS 7.0 or equivalent), and a nomination from a state or territory government.

The subclass 491 regional visa pathway is increasingly utilised by early childhood graduates who accumulate only 65–75 points. Because early childhood teaching sits on the STSOL, it is not eligible for a direct 189 visa unless a state sponsors the applicant under a 190 or 491 arrangement. Home Affairs data show that 1,020 early childhood teachers were granted a 491 visa in 2022–2023, compared with 690 for secondary teachers. The takeaway is that secondary teachers enjoy a broader visa route map and a higher likelihood of independent invitations at moderate points, while early childhood teachers benefit from every state’s occupation list and fast-tracked state nomination in regional areas, particularly if they accept a position in a centre classified as “regional” for migration purposes.

Study Pathways and Accreditation Factors

TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) maintains a national register of accredited initial teacher education programs. As of July 2024, there were 345 accredited early childhood teaching programs (bachelor and postgraduate) and 402 secondary teaching programs covering various subject method specialisations. The course landscape has shifted toward accelerated in-person models post-pandemic, with many universities offering two-year Master of Teaching programs for graduates from non-education disciplines. The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024: Education places the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and the University of Sydney among the global top 20; all three produce graduates with consistently high employment outcomes as measured by QILT. Universities Australia’s 2023 “Higher Education Facts and Figures” publication notes that 22 per cent of all students enrolled in initial teacher education were international students, a proportion that rebounded to pre-2020 levels after travel restrictions ended.

AITSL’s skills assessment criteria require at least 45 days of supervised teaching practice for early childhood and 60 days for secondary, conducted in Australia or a comparable English-speaking country. International students who complete a TEQSA-accredited course are automatically deemed to meet the professional practice requirement, but they must still demonstrate an overall IELTS Academic score of 7.0 for listening and speaking and 7.0 for reading and writing, or equivalent test results, when applying for the skills assessment for migration. This English threshold is higher than the typical university entry requirement of 6.5 or 7.0 overall, creating a hurdle that some graduates clear only after additional test preparation. Home Affairs data suggest that approximately 12 per cent of education graduates who lodge a 189 expression of interest initially fail the points-tested English language threshold and need to resit the test to reach the superior level that awards 10 additional points.

Labour Market Durability and Policy Tailwinds

The National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, endorsed by Education Ministers in December 2022, has funded 5,000 additional teacher education scholarships at AUD 40,000 each and introduced a national campaign to recruit mid-career changers into teaching. The Australian Government’s 2024–2025 Budget allocated AUD 30.8 million to expand the High Achieving Teachers program, which supports employment-based pathways. For international graduates, the most relevant policy levers are the extension of post-study work rights—teaching graduates with a bachelor degree can now receive a two-year 485 visa, while those with a master’s by coursework can receive three years, and those in regional areas may be eligible for an additional one to two years—and the dedicated education stream within the 189 points test that has lowered effective cut-off points.

The combination of steadfast demand, occupation list inclusion across all jurisdictions, and streamlined post-study work settings means that the 2020–2024 period has solidified teaching as a high-yield qualification for permanent residency. The employment outcomes for secondary education graduates remain marginally stronger in terms of four-month placement rates and median salaries, yet early childhood graduates have closed the migration access gap thanks to universal state nomination and fast-growing regional incentives. The difference in median salary, while persistent, is balanced by an easier entry into regional employment for early childhood teachers, which in turn compresses the timeline from graduate to permanent visa holder.

The migration program for 2024–2025, which maintains an overall ceiling of 185,000 places with 132,200 allocated to the Skill stream, explicitly designates teaching as a “critical sector”. The Department of Home Affairs’ planning levels indicate that education professionals are now assessed under a ministerial direction that places employer-sponsored and regional education positions in the highest processing priority, equal to healthcare. This operational reality, combined with the September 2023 expansion of the Regional Occupations List for teaching, provides a level of predictability that few other graduate occupations can match.

FAQ

What is the employment rate for early childhood and secondary teaching graduates in Australia?

According to the 2024 Graduate Outcomes Survey, 87.4 per cent of early childhood graduates and 91.6 per cent of secondary graduates were in full-time employment within four months of completing their course. These figures have remained above 83 per cent since 2020, far exceeding the average for bachelor-degree graduates.

How much do early childhood teachers earn compared with secondary teachers in their first year?

Median starting salaries for early childhood teachers under 25 sit at AUD 67,100, while secondary teachers start at AUD 75,200. Government school pay scales in New South Wales, for example, offer new secondary teachers approximately AUD 73,000. In Western Australia, graduate secondary teachers can earn up to AUD 78,500 due to location allowances. Early childhood salaries are supplemented in some states by retention payments, but the national median remains lower.

Which states list early childhood and secondary teachers on their occupation shortage lists?

Every Australian state and territory lists both early childhood (pre-primary) teacher (ANZSCO 241111) and secondary school teacher (ANZSCO 241411) on their skilled migration occupation lists for 190 and 491 nomination. Secondary teaching sits on the federal Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List, opening the 189 visa pathway. Early childhood sits on the Short-Term Skilled Occupation List, meaning state or territory nomination is required for permanent residency. Regional Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia have added specific concessions that prioritise early childhood teachers for regional 491 nominations.

What are the PR grant rates for education graduates under the 189 and 190 visas?

For the 2022–2023 program year, the Department of Home Affairs issued 1,128 invitations to secondary teachers and 672 to early childhood teachers under subclass 189. The grant rate for 190 applications (the proportion approved once decided) reached 94.6 per cent for secondary teachers and 91.3 per cent for early childhood teachers, assuming a valid skills assessment and at least seven points for English. In the 2023–2024 period, invitations for early childhood teachers increased by 212 per cent year-on-year, reflecting new processing priorities for education occupations.

Do early childhood teachers need to be registered, and what are the English language requirements for skills assessment?

Yes, early childhood teachers must be registered with a state teacher regulatory authority, such as the Victorian Institute of Teaching. For migration skills assessment, AITSL requires an overall IELTS Academic score of 7.0 in both listening and speaking, and 7.0 in reading and writing, or equivalent in another approved test. This is higher than typical university admission requirements; around 12 per cent of graduate applicants initially do not meet the standard and must retake the test to secure the 10 superior-English points.

How long does the visa process take for teachers applying for a 190 or 491 visa?

Home Affairs reports an average 190 processing time of 8.2 months for teachers in 2022–2023, with 89 per cent of applications finalised within 12 months. The 491 regional visa follows a similar timeline, though state government nomination processing can add an additional two to four weeks. New ministerial direction 105 gives education professionals a highest-priority queue, which is expected to shorten average processing times through 2024–2025.

Which specialisation is more likely to lead to permanent residency quickly?

Secondary education graduates have access to the 189 independent pathway and often reach the 85-point threshold faster if they have a master’s degree, Australian study points, and superior English. However, early childhood graduates can secure state nomination from any jurisdiction and benefit from targeted regional incentives that reduce the points needed. In practice, a secondary graduate with 75 points may succeed more easily through 189, while an early childhood graduate who accepts a job in a regional area may obtain a 491 and then transition to 191 permanent residency with fewer points.

Ongoing Market Dynamics

Employer appetite remains robust into the 2024 intake. Schools Week Australia, a sector publication, reported in March 2024 that the number of unfilled secondary teaching positions in NSW alone crossed 2,000 in the first term, the highest in a decade. Early childhood centres recorded a 27 per cent turnover rate nationally in 2023, as documented by the Early Childhood Australia workforce study, pushing providers to sponsor overseas candidates on Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) visas at an increasing frequency. Both specialisations, therefore, operate in a seller’s market, but the mechanisms for converting a graduate degree into a visa vary. A prospective international student evaluating Australia’s education system can, using this data, model the return on investment not just in salary terms but in migration calendar terms. The period 2020–2024 shows that the policy infrastructure around teaching has evolved from reactive to systematically preferential, and the numbers bear out an unusually linear path from lecture theatre to labour market to permanent residence.