So says associate lecturer Jamie Sherson from ACU, who runs the university’s Step Up into Teaching (SUIT) program – an offering designed to give Year 11 and 12 students an early taster of what’s in store if they opt to join Australia’s teaching ranks.

Enrolments in SUIT have surged by more than 50 per cent this year compared to last year’s intake.

Sherson says it seems a big shift is indeed underway.

“We’re seeing some massive numbers in our Brisbane campus, in excess of a 40 per cent increase year-on-year so far…

“But also, I feel like there’s a bit of a change in the tide, in terms of the energy around high school students.

“Teaching seems to be an opportunity for a lot of them, or they see it as a bit of a difference maker.”

A driving desire to ‘do good’ via teaching is building amongst the younger generation, Sherson concludes.

“There’s a really deep feeling that resonates with that generation, that they can actually make a difference.

“And I feel like that’s mirrored from some of their own experiences as students, where they’ve obviously been nurtured by their in-service teachers, whether it was at a primary or secondary point.”

This speaks to the profound impression our current teachers are leaving with their students, Sherson says.

“They are excellent role models, and many of our students aspire to be just like them.”

An increasing number of career changers are also turning to teaching as their preferred option, the academic flags.

“We’re finding that education is what people are wanting to move to, whether it is the start of a career or a change of a career – it is actually hard to pinpoint why,” he admits.

“I know that a lot of different vocations are thrown at students at all sorts of ages, whether they are mature age or school leavers, but I genuinely feel like it’s the amazing teachers that we have now in classrooms that are building those relationships with the students – and they’ve been through a lot.”

Many of those seeking out teaching degrees have had their schooling years marked by COVID, with some “really tough times” behind them, he says.

To emerge from this with plans for a future in education speaks volumes, he suggests.

“I think the abilities of the in-service teachers to kind of roll with those punches has been quite aspirational.

“I think those experiences, along with the ability of SUIT as a pathway for students that may not have thought that university was a career path for them – whether it’s due to different backgrounds or different socioeconomic statuses, or they’re ’first in family’ and university may not have been part of the conversation because their parents aren’t able to afford it or they don’t have any capital within tertiary education… – [have been impactful].”

With a well-documented teacher shortfall playing out across the country, governments have made moves to attract more people into teaching, including paid placement arrangements, as well as alluring training scholarships and bursaries.

Yet a sweeping UK study published last year found these popular ‘quick-fix’ strategies used across the world to attract and retain teachers utimately do not work.

The study found that far more emphasis needs to be put into targeting those with the potential to be teachers, but who may currently not be interested, as opposed to offering current teachers more of what they already want.

This should include raising the profile and prestige of the profession, increasing pay, and providing schools with better resources, the study proposed.

Problems remain at the other end of the recruitment pipeline, Sherson says, and more needs to be done to address the dire numbers of teachers opting to quit.

“I think attrition is something that is often attributed to our profession in particular, but that’s just because our profession is so outward-facing,” he clarifies.

“What we try to do in our degrees, and specifically around SUIT, is that kind of early exposure to the demands of teaching and providing points of inspiration, but also making sure that they know of the challenges that will face them during their careers.

“That becomes our job to focus on developing self-awareness, goal-setting, reflective practice, all the things that are essential tools to navigate the realities of a classroom.”