ITE - One Pager

Related project
Incentivising excellence, attracting high-achieving teaching candidates

Incentivising excellence: Attracting high-achieving teaching candidates

BETA worked with the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review to test what incentives would appeal to high-achieving teaching candidates.

We ran a discrete choice experiment with young high-achievers and mid-career professionals.

The below graphs show the additional probability of choosing teaching over a ‘baseline job’* (in percentage points).

Young High-Achievers (18-25 year-olds with an ATAR of 80 or above)

Additional probability of choosing a teaching package was highest when including: study – paid work throughout study (+10%), $30,000 p.a. scholarship (+10%), and mortgage/rent payments (+10%); work – guaranteed ongoing employment in nearby school (+10%), guaranteed ongoing employment (+8%), manageable workload (+7%). Including mentoring as a work incentive had the smallest effect (+3%).

Mid-Career Professionals (26-60 year-olds with a Bachelor’s degree or higher)

Additional probability of choosing a teaching package was highest when including: study – paid work throughout study (+10%), $30,000 p.a. scholarship (+10%), and mortgage/rent payments (+10%); work – guaranteed ongoing employment in nearby school (+10%), guaranteed ongoing employment (+8%), manageable workload (+7%). Including mentoring as a work incentive had the smallest effect (+3%).

*For our study, we defined baseline job to have no study or work incentives, $60,000 starting pay and $100,000 top pay.

Work, study and financial incentives play a part in encouraging people to a career in teaching. This research contributes to our understanding of how to best attract high-achieving candidates to the profession.