A Critical Response to Victoria’s Early Childhood Workforce Retention Guide
Stay Where, Go Where? Earlier this year, the Victorian Department of Education released their Workforce Retention Guide as part of its broader change management toolkit for Best Start, Best Life. The guide outlines thoughtful strategies that services can adopt to reduce staff turnover and support educator wellbeing, from fostering positive culture to improving systems, expectations, and leadership. And yes, there are plenty of things in there worth trying. But if you’re working in sessional kindergarten right now, especially as a teacher or experienced educator, you might be left asking: Stay where? Go where? Progress to what because here’s what the guide doesn’t talk about:
The stagnant nature of sessional kinder roles, despite the incredible leadership happening every day within them.
The fact that remuneration still doesn’t reflect the complexity of the work.
The complete lack of a real pipeline to professionalism, especially for women.
And the reality that many talented, ambitious, and deeply skilled educators have nowhere to grow but sideways.
Retention Without Real Recognition?
Let’s be clear: a great workplace culture matters. So do clear expectations, mentoring, and thoughtful leadership. But you know what else matters? Pay. Pathways. Power. And on those fronts, this guide is oddly quiet.
The average teacher in a sessional kinder may stay in the same role for 5, 10, even 20 years with no opportunity for meaningful advancement. You can become an Educational Leader (for one hour a week). Maybe a Nominated Supervisor (with a handful of admin hours). But beyond that? The door shuts. There is no ladder. There is no progression plan. And there is no promise that your expertise will ever be valued beyond the classroom.
The Pipeline to Nowhere
Despite the glossy promises of Best Start, Best Life and “free kinder for all,” the reality for many educators is that:
Leadership roles are limited, and often unpaid or underpaid
Cluster management and EYM systems are often run by non-educators, people with little to no ECEC classroom experience
Ambitious teachers are expected to “just stay teachers”
Women, who make up over 95% of the ECEC workforce, are structurally boxed into flat roles with no upward momentum
This is not a pipeline. It’s a holding pattern. The Department talks a lot about pipeline to professionalism, but for many sessional educators, that pipeline is dry, blocked, and leads nowhere.
Let’s Name What’s Missing
The Workforce Retention Guide claims to support long-term sustainability. But without:
Professional advancement pathways for teachers in community-based and sessional settings
Financial recognition that matches responsibility
Governance reform that centres educators in decision-making (not just business managers or CEOs)
Structural change to how the system values, grows and retains early childhood leaders
…then “retention” just becomes code for “stay where you are, and don’t expect more.”
What VSKEA Is Hearing
From our members and sector colleagues, we’re hearing frustration that sounds like this:
“I’ve been teaching for 12 years. What comes next?”
“I’m leading a team, mentoring provisionals, managing QIP, for no extra pay.”
“Our service is run by people who’ve never worked a day in a kinder room.”
“They keep telling us how valuable we are, but nothing ever changes.”
We are not anti-collaboration, anti-change, or anti-leadership. But we are pro-truth. And the truth is: you can’t retain people in a structure that caps them at entry-level.
What Needs to Open Up
We believe that if the Department of Education and government are serious about workforce retention, the conversation must expand to include:
Defined pathways for progression, from teacher to senior teacher, curriculum lead, pedagogy coach, network lead, or other roles within sessional settings
Salary structures and allowances that grow with experience, responsibility, and leadership
A seat at the table for educators in governance, reform planning, and cluster leadership
Recognition of expertise in ways that are more than tokenistic
Because no one wants to walk away from the profession. But it’s getting harder to stay in a system that doesn’t reward staying.
Let’s Keep This Conversation Going
If you’re reading this and nodding, or sighing, you’re not alone. We’re building a space at VSKEA where sessional educators can speak, share, and strategise together. Let’s talk about what real professional growth looks like. Let’s demand a system that doesn’t just recruit, but retains, develops and champions its educators.
We believe in a better future for early childhood education. But we can’t build it by ignoring the ceiling that so many of us keep hitting.