G8 Education’s Early Childhood Teachers will have the choice to either enjoy two weeks additional leave or higher wages from next year, as part of the provider’s fight against growing sector-wide workforce shortages pressures.

G8 Education’s Chief People Transformation Officer Tabitha Pearson said it was time for the business to think differently about how to attract and retain team members, which is why they are introducing a new innovative employee benefit model – starting with reimaging their offer for Teachers.

“No two people are the same, so we thought, why should their employee benefits be the same,” she said.

“Our centre-based, long daycare teams don’t have the ability to work flexibly from home or out-of-hours, but we want to still recognise their value and afford them with flexibility in other ways.”

In 2023, Early Childhood Teachers at G8 will receive an additional two weeks’ accrual of leave, with the option from July 1 to swap one or both weeks additional leave for an equivalent higher hourly rate increase.

Early Childhood Teachers continue to be one of the hardest roles for early learning providers to recruit, with the pressure predicted to grow as new early learning reforms come into effect across the country.

National Skills Commission’s Employment Projections suggest that demand for Early Childhood Teachers will grow by 21.6% from November 2021 to November 2026.

That is more than 10,000 more roles to fill sector-wide on top of the current 2,200 vacancies already listed online.

“This is just the start for us. Our vision for 2023 is to reimagine our employee benefits for every role and create room for all our team members to create their own journey,” said Ms Pearson.

To find out more about what a career at G8 Education could look like for you, visit the careers website.