G8 Education ECTs to benefit from new employee benefit model with extra leave

Freya Lucas

Nov 29, 2022

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Early childhood teachers (ECTs) working for G8 Education will be given two weeks of additional leave in 2023, or offered the chance to trade leave for a higher wage option as the provider seeks to combat the growing pressures within the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector when it comes to attracting, retaining and recruiting ECTs.

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

“It’s time to think differently about how to attract and retain team members,” G8 Education’s Chief People Transformation Officer Tabitha Pearson said in announcing the measures, which are the first in a suite of innovative employee benefit model initiatives.

“This is just the start for us,” Ms Pearson said. “Our centre-based long day care 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.”

“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.”.

ECTs 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.

The National Skills Commission’s Employment Projections suggest that demand for ECTs will grow by 21.6 per cent from November 2021 to November 2026, which equates to more than 10,000 more roles to fill sector-wide on top of the current 2,200 vacancies already listed online.

Learn more about G8 Education here.

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