Early childhood teachers will be given a range of professional development supports to get their career off to the best possible start, thanks to the Andrews Labor Government.

Minister for Early Childhood Ingrid Stitt today launched a $3.9 million career support package to benefit early childhood teachers in their first five years of teaching.

The support offer includes up to five hours of individual coaching for first year early childhood teachers, access to Communities of Practice for second and third year teachers, and ongoing access to an Alumni Network to help these teachers stay connected and share their professional growth and expertise.

Participants will also be able to access tailored professional development to continuously improve their teaching.

The package also includes funding for Innovation Grants to help early childhood education and care services trial ways to improve early childhood teacher retention rates.

Grants from $5,000 to $30,000 are available for services that deliver a Victorian funded kindergarten program and have at least one teacher in the first five years of their career employed at the service.

Making Victoria the Education State starts with the early years. That’s why, in an Australian-first, the Labor Government is investing almost $5 billion this decade to provide three-year-old children with access to 15 hours of a funded kindergarten program.

From 2022, three-year-old children across the state will have access to at least five hours of kindergarten delivered by a qualified teacher. Services will then scale up their hours to reach the full 15-hour program by 2029.

The reform is expected to create about 6,000 new early childhood jobs, including around 4,000 bachelor-qualified teachers and 2,000 VET-qualified educators.

Applications for the grants are open until 21 June. To find out more, visit education.vic.gov.au/childhood.