Our people are our greatest asset and we are empowering them to build professional expertise across their career through high-quality, targeted development opportunities. By promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of our people, we ensure high-quality services are delivered to Queenslanders.
Education Futures Institute
The Education Futures Institute (EFI) empowers our educators, departmental staff, and school and system leaders to build their professional expertise and wellbeing. The EFI provides high-quality, targeted capability development for all staff across the state at key stages of their careers.
In 2023–24, we launched flagship programs for 486 aspiring, beginning and experienced principals. 2023–24 has also seen the expansion of differentiated capability development through school improvement coaching, business coaching and Collaborative Learning Communities for school leaders, teachers and staff to lift school performance. All departmental staff have access to the online EFI Catalogue for on-demand professional development opportunities.
The EFI continues to expand its professional development programs and will be launching new flagship programs in 2024 for teacher aides and middle leaders.
Professional standards for middle leaders
Middle leaders take on many different roles in a school and play an important role in fostering a positive and inclusive teaching and learning culture.
To better support our middle leaders, we partnered with the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership to develop Professional Standards for Middle Leaders (the standards) in schools. The standards identify the key capabilities that support success as a middle leader and becoming a principal, and identify career pathways for teachers aspiring towards middle leadership.
The impact of the standards will be assessed in Queensland and will inform the development of supporting resources. The new flagship program for middle leaders, delivered by the EFI, was developed in alignment with the standards.
The standards are available across Australia and more information can be accessed via the
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership website.
Classroom management hub
Effective classroom management is critical to safe and supportive learning and establishing positive relationships between teachers and students. In 2024, we delivered the Classroom Management Hub (CMH), a repository of resources to upskill teachers on practices that have the greatest positive impact on learning, wellbeing and behaviour.
CMH resources are evidence-based, trauma-informed and culturally responsive, ensuring teachers have access to effective strategies to foster positive and respectful learning environments.
Teacher Attraction and Retention Workforce Plan
Attracting and retaining teachers aligned to our workforce needs is critical to maintaining a high performing education system and delivering world class education.
Our Teacher Attraction and Retention Workforce Plan acknowledges the teacher workforce challenges impacting our schools and identifies fit-for-purpose, contemporary and innovative workforce solutions that seek to support the attraction, recruitment and retention of teachers for state schools across Queensland. We have also commenced work on a comprehensive sector-wide workforce strategy in consultation with teachers, stakeholders and peak bodies. The consultation, occurring through a series of roundtables facilitated by the Minister for Education, will identify key priorities to deliver a strong and capable teaching workforce.
Several priority actions are underway, including:
- the statewide Teacher Recruitment Service
- a streamlined online Teacher Application Portal
- scholarships and grants for aspiring and preservice teachers
- Trade to Teach and Turn to Teaching internship programs
- supported pathways into teaching for teacher aides and school staff
- the Teach Queensland Ambassador network
- teacher-centred mobility processes
- Teacher Rapid Response Team
- national marketing campaign to elevate the teaching profession
- interstate and New Zealand teacher recruitment campaign.
The plan aligns with Equity and Excellence and builds on current and emerging opportunities provided by the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.
Teacher housing
The department is committed to attracting and retaining capable and confident teachers to rural and remote schools, and offers subsidised housing for eligible teachers.
In the 2023–24, $48.3 million was committed over 4 years for additional housing for teachers in rural and remote communities. This year, permanent houses were delivered for teachers in Anakie, Croydon, Kilcummin, Proston, Saibai Island and Taroom.
We will continue to support our teachers to access to housing, by providing $45.1 million over 3 years from 2024–25 to meet increased demand and leasing costs for teacher accommodation.
Teacher Recruitment Service
In Term 2, 2023–24, we commenced implementation of the Teacher Recruitment Service, providing a streamlined, efficient and consistent teacher recruitment service for schools and applicants. The service supports schools to source and recruit teachers who best fit their location and workforce needs.
Key benefits under the service are being delivered by the Teacher Application Portal, which provides a single application point for prospective teachers, reducing the need for applicants to apply to multiple vacancies. Consistent recruitment and selection processes combined with prioritisation of vacancies will enable efficient and equitable access to teachers for schools and students.
By promoting prioritised, timely and quality recruitment outcomes, we have positioned the department to be a competitive recruiter in a tight labour market.
Workforce equity, diversity and inclusion
The department embraces the value of our diverse workforce by fostering workplace cultures which are inclusive, equitable and respectful. This culture is further enhanced by systems and practices which promote flexibility, accessibility and cultural safety.
In 2023–2024 we:
- completed the annual equity and diversity audit to better understand the causes of workforce inequity in April 2024
- published the workforce Equity and Diversity plan in July 2023
- became the first Queensland Government department and the first education department in Australia to achieve the highest Australian Workplace Equality Index ranking of Platinum employer status, recognising the ongoing commitment to workplace inclusion of LGBTQ+ people
- commenced human-centred co-design of the second Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workforce Strategy and second workforce strategy for people with disability—EnAbled
- delivered the Flex-connect framework to enable the benefits of a flexible workforce. Further details are provided below.
Our commitments to workplace equity, inclusion and diversity are outlined in the Diversity and Inclusion Policy.
We deliver on these commitments through actions outlined in our We All Belong Equity and Diversity Plan and workforce strategies.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workforce Strategy
The department acknowledges and respects the unique cultures, histories, and ongoing contributions of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples and is committed to reframing the relationship with Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples through fostering a culturally safe and capable workforce and developing the cultural capability of our employees.
In 2023, we partnered with Everywhen Group, an Aboriginal certified business, to co-design the second Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workforce Strategy 2024–2027. Seven workshops were facilitated in Townsville, Rockhampton and Brisbane to co-design a strategy that builds on the strengths of previous workforce strategies and continues to develop culturally capable and inclusive workplaces.
The strategy outlines detailed actions to address the barriers to equity and continues progress toward 4% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce representation. The strategy underpins the Equity and Diversity Plan, and aligns with the Reframing the Relationships plan under the Public Sector Act 2022 (Qld), and will be finalised in 2024–25.
EnAbled Workforce Strategy
EnAbled is the department's second disability workforce strategy. It contains actions and initiatives that promote more inclusive, accessible, and safe workplaces for employees with disability, providing detailed actions that underpin delivery of the Equity and Diversity Plan and the department's new Disability Service Plan, currently under development.
A human-centred co-design process was undertaken with employees with disability and their allies, ensuring their voices were heard, to develop the new workforce strategy. The workforce strategy will be released in 2024–25 and provides actions to address the causes of inequity and make progress toward the disability target of 12%.
Trade to Teach Program expansion
We are committed to providing a supported pathway for skilled and industry-experienced tradespeople to transition to a rewarding career in teaching.
In September 2023, we expanded the now $20 million Trade to Teach Internship program, which supports qualified and experienced tradespeople to transition to teaching careers, bringing their real-life industry experience into classrooms.
Trade to Teach offers successful applicants a $20,000 scholarship, a paid internship, and a guaranteed permanent teaching position specialising in Industrial Technology and Design in a Queensland state secondary school on graduation and successful completion of the program.
We are delivering the program in partnership with the CQ University and the University of Southern Queensland.
As at 30 June 2024 there were 72 participants in the program.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
The safety of our students and staff is always our highest priority. In 2024, we delivered the Health, Safety and Wellbeing (HSW) Strategy to build staff capability to identify, oversee, manage and control organisational HSW threats, risks and hazards.
Our HSW Strategy is supported by our renewed HSW commitment statement—Work safe, Learn safe, Play safe. The statement reaffirms our commitment to health, safety and wellbeing and details the responsibility of our executive leaders.
In 2024, we began updating the department's HSW Management System, which includes a suite of supporting resources such as a system manual, policies and procedures. Work on this system is underway and will be in place by early 2025.
Staff wellbeing
We are committed to the wellbeing of our employees, students and to the broader community engaged with our schools and workplaces. This is a key focus area of Equity and Excellence.
All staff have access to the Staff Wellbeing and Learning Resources portal that provides resources and learning tools to help staff develop their physical, psychological and occupational wellbeing.
During 2023–24, we supported the wellbeing of staff through:
- the Principal Health and Wellbeing team delivering a targeted program of capability development and support to enhance the wellbeing of our principals and school leaders
- 8 Regional Wellbeing Coordinators (RWCs) support each region to implement sustainable staff wellbeing initiatives and embed staff wellbeing in our workplaces. In 2023–24, RWCs received over 930 requests for support and delivered over 500 presentations to over 12,970 staff
- the Staff Wellbeing Team delivered 133 Psychological First Aid (PFA) training sessions to 2,270 leaders and staff to build capability in supporting staff following potentially traumatic events. Feedback from PFA sessions highlighted more than 90% of respondents felt more confident to have conversations about mental health, more able to encourage help-seeking behaviour and more aware of mental health support available.
Human resources support for schools
We are committed to providing human resources support to school leaders and schools.
In 2023, school leader access to responsive support was enhanced through our new back to basics service model. The model connects school leaders with a dedicated human resources leader to ensure continuity and consistent service delivery to their school.
Teacher workload pilot
Supporting our teachers to manage administrative workloads promotes a happy and healthy workforce with more time to educate students in the classroom.
In 2024, we launched a $1.88 million pilot program, co-funded by the Queensland and Australian Governments, to employ 11 specialist staff to support 33 schools to manage workplace health, safety and wellbeing administrative workloads. The additional support is allowing teachers to spend less time on administrative tasks, and more time doing what they do best, teaching students.
The pilot will run until the end of 2024 and the outcomes will be shared with other jurisdictions and sectors.
We also asked over 55,000 teachers and school leaders to provide feedback about their workload pressures and where further support is required for schools. More than 15,500 responses were collected, providing a clear picture of administrative and other tasks taking teachers away from teaching and learning. Actions to address the top 5 issues include reducing the burden in recording behaviour incidents, limiting data collection and unnecessary testing, setting clear expectations for parent contact, reducing the number of meetings, and stopping the creation of extra curriculum planning documents.
The department will implement targeted actions in 2024–25 to respond to this feedback.
Equity and Excellence Roadshows
The department is continuing to work with key stakeholders, including school principals, to design and deliver the education strategy.
In Term 4 2023 and Term 2 2024, the Director-General and Associate Director-General, Early Childhood and State Schools hosted roadshow events in each of the 8 regions across the state. The roadshows provided a unique opportunity for school principals to interact directly with system leaders in small groups, to ask questions and share their insights to inform system initiatives.
The roadshows built on the system-wide messaging and collaboration that was featured at the 2022 Principals' Conference and Business Day.
Educational performance and support model
We have implemented a renewed educational performance and support model (the model) to help realise Equity and Excellence. The model responds to principal feedback to separate supervision and support, and enables them to have an active voice in requesting the differentiated support that aligns to their local context and needs.
The model guides school supervisors, school improvement coaches, and regional and system leaders to use evidence and professional judgement to support schools to meet system-wide measures and expectations.
Flexible work arrangements
Well-designed workplace flexibility fosters an inclusive and high-performing workplace culture, increases workforce participation and enhances work-life balance and job satisfaction.
In 2023–24, we published our Flex-connect framework to guide our approach to delivering a flexible workforce that is well positioned to deliver on our vision of a progressive, high-performing education system. By providing clarity about our guiding principles, eligibility, responsibilities, approval considerations, and flexible work options, we have positioned the department to realise the significant benefits of flexible work, while still maintaining the benefits of traditional workplace approaches.
Training completions
Training is completed on an annual basis to ensure departmental and legislative standards are met and our people have the capability to respond to role-specific risks.
In 2023–24, completion of training in schools and corporate areas remained high, including:
- 96,109 completions of 2023 Annual Student Protection training
- 91,880 completions of 2024 Annual Student Protection training
- 75,390 completions of Curriculum Activity Risk Assessment training
- 52,768 theory and 36,399 practical training module completions of Managing students' health support needs at school (staff can complete multiple modules based on individual student needs)
- 96,943 completions of Mandatory All Staff Training and Management Foundations training by employees, casual staff and contractors.