Tradies and nurses to teach in Australian classrooms

Tradies and nurses could be heading back to the classroom to teach students industry skills. 

In a bid to increase Australia’s global education ranking, people in other careers may be able to make the switch back to school to share their wisdom. 

The national review plans to ‘shake up’ the country’s schools where industry professionals could share their specialist skills with students, according to SBS News. 

The national review plans to ‘shake up’ the country’s schools where industry professionals could share their specialist skills with students (stock image)

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said on Saturday they needed to figure out what was working and what was failing. 

‘Having a former tradie or nurse as a teacher can bring more perspective to a classroom and can be especially beneficial for the teaching of vocational and trade skills,’ he said. 

Through bringing non-traditional teachers into the education system, the minister said it would add more depth to the pool of teachers.

However, the Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said the review was ‘disrespectful’ towards the teaching profession. 

‘It is important to attract people with different skills and life experience into the teaching profession, but there should be no fast track to becoming a teacher,’ she said.

Under the new plan, teaching standards won’t suffer but are said to strengthen. 

‘Students need to learn from people from all walks of life,’ Mr Birmingham said (stock image)

‘Students need to learn from people from all walks of life,’ Mr Birmingham told Canberra Times. 

While teachers currently need to re-register every five years, depending on the state, after they achieve their undergraduate teaching degrees, Mr Birmingham believes it would be easier for industry professionals to teach their trades.

The new review aims to level out any inconsistencies between states and territories.