Career Start

Support for schools

Funding

Funding for schools to support the reduction of face-to-face teaching time for participating early career teachers and their mentors is supplied via the Student Resource Package (SRP).

For schools participating in the 2027 Career Start program, the relevant SRP cycles are:

• Confirmed Cycle – published to schools around April each year
• Revised Cycle – published to schools around July each year.

Career Start funding is to support eligible early career teachers and their mentors. If there is not enough ongoing evidence that the funding is being used for this purpose, it may be reviewed or withdrawn.

For more information, please refer to Student Resource Package – Targeted Initiatives.

Preparing for Career Start

Actions for principals to prepare for the Career Start program:

• Workforce planning: consider how best to facilitate consistent time release for early career and mentor teachers.
• Meeting alignment: where possible, align mentor and early career teacher time release for intentional meetings during the school day.
• Attendance requirements: Career Start is designed to offer holistic support through all program elements. Funded time release is allocated to ensure early career teachers can take part in the provided supports.
• Professional development: any mentors who have not completed the 2-day Effective Mentoring Program(opens in a new window) are encouraged to do so. Mentors are also expected to attend half-day Career Start Workshops in Terms 1 and 4.