Student Resource Package – Targeted Initiatives

Career Start – Transforming the First Years of the Teaching Career (Reference 132)

Career Start is a structured program for graduate teachers which aims to improve their experience as they are inducted into the profession. Career Start provides time release, mentoring, professional development opportunities and a range of additional supports to graduate teachers and their mentors to accelerate the development of graduate teachers’ professional practice and support their wellbeing.

Following a successful 3-year pilot in primary and specialist schools in 3 areas, Career Start expanded in 2024 to support eligible graduate teachers in every Victorian government school (including secondary schools) in Inner Gippsland, North Eastern Melbourne, Outer Eastern Melbourne, Southern Melbourne, and Western Melbourne.

In 2025, Career Start has expanded to an additional 8 areas:

• Hume Merri-bek
• Brimbank Melton
• Goulburn
• Ovens-Murray
• Mallee
• Outer Gippsland
• Barwon
• Central Highlands.

Career Start is not currently available outside of the 13 listed areas, but other supports may be available.

Eligibility in 2025

Automatic eligibility – no nomination required

Graduate teachers will automatically participate in the Career Start program in 2025 if they:

• commenced their first year of classroom teaching as a provisionally registered teacher within the Victorian government school system on or after 7 June 2025
• are employed at the classification of Classroom Teacher Range 1-1 (CT1-1)
• are employed in a Victorian government school within the participating areas.

The department will utilise a combination of eduPay data and advice from school leaders to identify graduate teachers who meet the criteria of automatic eligibility. A welcome email will be sent to principals at the beginning of the year to identify eligible graduates, and share further information about the program.

If a teacher is not registered in eduPay, or you identify a discrepancy, please contact your Career Start regional manager by email as soon as possible so that amendments to our data can be made.

Additional eligibility – nomination required

Principals may nominate graduate teachers to participate in the 2025 Career Start program if they:

• commenced their first year of classroom teaching as a provisionally registered teacher within the Victorian government school system on or after 7 June 2025
• are within CT1–2 to CT1–4 classification
• are not an internationally or nationally experienced teacher
• are employed in a Victorian government school within the participating areas.

Principals must confirm that the graduate teacher is expected to benefit from the Career Start supports, and that they and their mentor will be supported to engage in all elements of the Career Start program.

To nominate a graduate teacher for additional eligibility, please contact your Career Start regional manager (details below).

Pre-service teachers with permission to teach (general)

• PSTs working in schools with PTT (general) who are due to graduate prior to the 7 June 2025 SRP cutoff can be included in the program from the beginning of the calendar year.
• They will need to have passed their LANTITE to join the program at the beginning of the year, to ensure they are on track to graduate on time.
• They will not be eligible for further funding in successive calendar years.
• It is expected that applicable schools assign a mentor to the PST working with PTT (General) for the year and facilitate the additional time release for them and their mentor, as well as attendance at professional learning workshops and Learning Alliance Meetings.

If the PST working with PTT (General) and their mentor are not fully participating, their funding may be reviewed prior to the June 7 2025 SRP cutoff.

Rates and calculation

Career Start is funded to support schools in backfilling teachers to offset the reduction in teaching time provided to graduate teachers and their mentors.

The annual level of funding will be calculated based on the number of teachers within their first year of provisionally registered teaching, engaged in Victorian schools and registered to participate in the Career Start program. It will be calculated in Term 1 and confirmed in Term 2 via the Student Resource Package (SRP).

Schools will receive funding calculated from 1 January 2025 for Component A and 5 April 2025 for Component B. Graduates may commence in Career Start up until the revised SRP cycle cut-off date of 6 June 2025.

Formula for components

FTE of career start graduates × [(graduate time release × (salaries + oncosts) + mentor time release × (salaries + oncosts))] × [days/365]

Funds for both Component A and Component B will be transferred to schools through the Student Resource Package (SRP) as a targeted initiative in the Confirmed Cycle and updated in the Revised Cycle to reflect changes in school staffing. Funding is allocated as credit.

Component A: Funding for Term 1 time release

Primary, specialist and P–12 schools

• Time release for graduates funded at 9.3% of a CT2-4 salary + 17.35% school oncosts
• Time release for mentors funded at 4.8% of a CT2-6 salary + 17.35% school oncosts

[Total FTE of Career Start graduates] × [(0.093 × ($104,216 + $18,081.48)) + (0.048 × ($116,894 + $20,281.11))] × [94/365]

or

In 2025: [Total FTE of Career Start graduate teacher participants] × $4,624.82

Secondary schools

• Time release for graduates funded at 8.5% of a CT2-4 salary + 17.35% school oncosts
• Time release for mentors funded at 5.4% of a CT2-6 salary + 17.35% school oncosts

[Total FTE of Career Start graduates] × [(0.085 × ($104,216 + $18,081.48) + (0.054 × ($116,894 + $20,281.11))] × [94/365]

or

In 2025: [Total FTE of Career Start graduate teacher participants] × $4,584.82

Component B: Funding for Terms 2 to 4 time release

Note: the below formulae account for the increase in teacher salaries at 1 July 2025 by calculating one term [87/365] of the payment using 2023–24 salaries, and 2 terms [184/365] of the payment using 2024–25 salaries.

Primary, specialist and P–9/12 schools

Total FTE of Career Start graduates] × [(0.093 × ($104,216 + $18,081.48)) + (0.048 × ($116,894 + $20,281.11)) × (87/365)] + [(0.093 × ($105,258 + $18,262.26)) + (0.048 × ($118,063 + $20,483.93)) × (184/365)]

or

In 2025: [Total FTE of graduate teacher participants] × $13,423.77

Secondary schools

[Total FTE of Career Start graduates] × [(0.085 × ($104,216 + $18,081.48)) + (0.054 × ($116,894 + $20,281.11)) × (87/365)] + [(0.085 × ($105,258 + $18,262.26)) + (0.054 × ($118,063 + $20,483.93)) × (184/365)]

or

In 2025: [Total FTE of graduate teacher participants] × $13,307.66

Total 2025 Career Start funding = Component A + Component B

Funding distribution

Component A and Component B funds are credited to schools according to the employment status of their registered graduate teachers. If a graduate teacher’s contract of employment does not extend beyond the end of Term 1, 2025, then only Component A will be funded to the school. Similarly, if a graduate teacher’s employment only commences after the end of Term 1, 2025, only Component B will be funded to the school through the SRP Revised Cycle.

Changes to a graduate teacher’s employment status will be reflected in the SRP Revised Cycle. Circumstances in which this may occur include if a graduate teacher begins an ongoing position in Term 1 but resigns before the start of Term 2. In such a case, the school will have received Component A and B in the Confirmed Cycle but will cede Component B in the SRP Revised Cycle.

Further information

For further information contact Career.Start@education.vic.gov.au or your regional manager:

• North East Victoria Region: Robyn Woolley, Robyn.Woolley@education.vic.gov.au
• North West Victoria Region: Helen Schilling, Helen.Schilling@education.vic.gov.au
• South East Victoria Region: Ben Plant, Ben.Plant@education.vic.gov.au
• South West Victoria Region: Nadia Tkaczuk, Nadia.Tkaczuk@education.vic.gov.au

Please also visit Career Start – transforming the first years of the teaching career.