A good week before the start of the school year in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, around 100 teaching positions are still vacant across Austria, as Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) reported at a press conference. According to the department, this number is in the usual range, which always occurs due to maternity leave, etc. “We will be able to hold every lesson next year,” Polaschek stressed. The application situation is good.
Compared to last year and the year before, many more positions have been filled, said the minister. In total, there are over 125,000 teachers. Around 8,000 full-time and part-time positions have been newly advertised for this year, the majority (around 5,200) of which are in compulsory schools (primary, middle, special, polytechnic and vocational schools).
Where it is not possible to find qualified staff before the start of school, the education authorities should approach student teachers in advanced semesters. In individual cases, pensioners are also placed in the classes.
More interested people than last year
Polaschek was extremely satisfied with the number of applications. Almost 14,200 interested people had applied, 3,000 more than last year. As usual, there will be further advertisements during the school year due to pregnancies, sick leave, etc.
For Polaschek, a “success factor” is the digitization of the entire application process: This year, for the second time, all teaching positions were digitally advertised at the same time on the platform www.klassejob.at advertised, so interested parties no longer have to apply to several education directorates.
“A large pool of staff” are also those who are changing careers in secondary schools (especially middle schools, AHS, BMHS). With the model rolled out on a broad scale last year, “the pool of staff will be sustainably larger and relieve the situation,” said the minister. In total, 500 people who are changing careers will begin their careers as teachers in the coming school year, which is six percent of new teachers. Last year, there were 700.
Career changers need certification
In this model, graduates with a suitable degree (e.g. business administration for the subject of mathematics) and suitable professional experience (e.g. statistician, auditing) can work at schools with a regular teaching contract; in addition to their job, they must complete a career changer course at a teacher training college (PH). Successful certification is a prerequisite for employment as a career changer.
So far, 7,500 people have applied for this position, and around 3,700 have been certified for specific subjects. “This shows that the selection process is quite strict,” said Polaschek. Unlike Germany or Switzerland, Austria still offers quality even in a situation where teachers are needed, emphasized Andreas Schnider, who heads the certification committee.
The certification process is closely tailored to the needs of schools. With computer science, mathematics and basic digital education, there are certifications in precisely those areas where many teachers are needed. The new perspectives of the career changers are also an enrichment for the schools. They bring with them experience from business, research, industry, environmental management and the media – “skills that we all need in schools”. He therefore hopes that the model will remain in place even when the staff shortage has been resolved.
Few “lateral dropouts”
Schnider finds it incomprehensible that reports suggest that many career changers leave school soon after they start. So far, a maximum of 20 people have dropped out, which is one to two percent. The motives are currently being investigated in an accompanying study.
There are a relatively high number of career changers in the science subjects, and according to the Ministry of Education, these were the most difficult places to fill with regular applicants. The search for staff was most difficult in the compulsory school sector, i.e. in Lower Austria, Vienna, Styria and Salzburg.
Criticism of Polaschek came from the opposition. The FPÖ saw a press release as a “pure PR event by the ÖVP”. “We are still light years away from combating the teacher shortage in the long term,” stated education spokesman Hermann Brückl. Filling gaps with student teachers and retired teachers cannot be a permanent solution. “It is simply wrong for the minister to pretend that he has the blatant teacher shortage even remotely under control,” said NEOS education spokeswoman Martina Künsberg Sarre. She repeated her call for 20,000 additional teachers from kindergarten to high school, but this would require a real recruitment offensive and comprehensive reforms that make the profession more attractive again.
