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Office for Early Childhood Education and Care > Workforce >

Workforce Overview

Queensland has a unique and growing early childhood education and care sector.

There are approximately 545,0001 children aged 0-8 in Queensland, with child population growth expected to increase by almost 17%2 by 2020.

Currently more than 2,600 services provide education and care to approximately 239,0003 of these children each week. In the past five years 500 new education and care services have been established in Queensland.

As Australia's most decentralised state, more than one third of Queenslanders live outside the South East corner. Queensland also has a diverse population including a significant Indigenous representation with over 6%4 of children with Indigenous heritage.

A number of key reforms are being implemented to ensure that Queensland can continue to provide all children with the quality education and care they need and deserve. This includes a commitment to provide universal access to kindergarten and the introduction of a new National Quality Framework, aimed at raising the standard of education and care services.

As of 1 January 2012, a new National Quality Framework applies to Queensland early childhood education and care services.

Based on a national workforce census of the sector conducted in June 2010, the Queensland early childhood education and care workforce consists of over 29,000 workers, including an estimated 26,000 educators, of which 95% are female.

A snapshot of some of the key characteristics of the Queensland ECEC workforce compared to the Australian workforce is as follows:

A comparison of characteristics between the QLD ECEC and Australian workforces.

Percentage of early childhood educators:

Queensland

Australia
  • identifying as Indigenous Australians

3.1%

2.1%
  • holding relevant Certificate III or higher qualification

73.1%

67.5%
  • studying relevant Certificate III or higher qualification

40.1%

30.9%
  • working in the sector 0-3 years

71.9%

67.3%
  • aged 15-34

52.9%

47%

1Australian Bureau of Statistics Cat. 3101.0, Table 53 Estimated Resident Population
2Australian Bureau of Statistics Cat. 3222.0, Table A3 Projected Population
3National ECEC Workforce Census 2010, Table 2.2.1
4Office for Economic and Statistical Research, Queensland Treasury. 2009 Estimated Residential Population

More information

Follow the links below to find out what these changes will mean or for further information on the recent national workforce census.

Current legislation

National ECEC Workforce Census Report 2010 External Link

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This page was last reviewed on 20 Feb 2012

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© The State of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and Employment) 2011.

Queensland Government