La Trobe University’s unique and highly successful employment-based postgraduate pathway program, Nexus, has been expanded into a new pilot employment-based undergraduate program announced by the Victorian Government (11 July). Nexus Undergraduate will see more than 300 dedicated Education Support staff and Koorie Education Support Officers gain teaching qualifications while undertaking paid employment in schools.
La Trobe’s School of Education will receive around $2.5 million towards delivering the pilot program that will help address the national teacher shortage issue by enabling rural and regional education support staff to pursue a La Trobe Bachelor of Teaching, Secondary and Special Education degree program while working.
La Trobe’s Dean of the School of Education, Professor Joanna Barbousas, welcomed the funding, saying that the new Nexus Bachelors program would build on the success of the existing Nexus Masters of Secondary and Masters of Primary programs that are at the forefront of addressing teacher shortages and delivering excellence in high-needs schools.
“I am thrilled that our pioneering Nexus program is being taken to another level with this new program that will enable Education Support staff to gain teaching qualifications while working in schools,” Professor Barbousas said.
“I’m particularly pleased that part of this program is about actively encouraging and supporting Indigenous Education Support Officers to become teachers, leading to a more culturally diverse teacher workforce.”
The pilot program will commence in 2025.
About Nexus
The current Nexus program, launched in 2020 as part of the Government’s High Achieving Teachers Program, is a first-of-its-kind pathway into primary and secondary teaching, that enables people to transition from other careers, while gaining practical experience in a school setting.
Nexus is delivered as part of the High Achieving Teachers Program with the support of the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment and the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training as part of its investment in Initial Teacher Education.
The first cohort of Nexus (Primary) students will commence this month (July) in New South Wales.
