Navigating early childhood workforce shortages in South Australia: why employer sponsorship may shape 2026 planning

Article

Fiona Alston

Feb 25, 2026

Save

For early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers across South Australia, persistent workforce shortages continue to constrain service delivery. Recent analysis from Jobs and Skills Australia confirms that these recruitment challenges are systemic rather than service-specific.

As planning for 2026 begins, understanding formally recognised occupational shortages will be critical to sustaining operations and maintaining compliance with educator-to-child ratios under the National Quality Framework (NQF).

National workforce data identifies 289 occupations currently experiencing shortages in South Australia. The education and training sector remains under sustained pressure, with Early Childhood Teachers formally recognised as an occupation in shortage.

For approved providers and centre managers, this context is significant. Recruitment challenges are not isolated to individual services or geographic pockets. Labour supply is not keeping pace with demand, particularly in higher-skilled and professional roles. The constraint lies in sourcing qualified teachers rather than entry-level staff.

In practical terms, prolonged vacancies in early childhood teaching roles can directly affect compliance, occupancy levels and educator wellbeing.

Given these conditions, domestic recruitment alone may not be sufficient for some services. Employer-sponsored migration pathways are increasingly being considered as part of longer-term workforce planning.

Recent migration analysis has also highlighted how employer sponsorship settings in South Australia are being shaped by projected 2026 occupation shortages, reinforcing the relevance of recognised skills gaps in workforce planning discussions.

Treating sponsorship as a proactive workforce strategy, rather than a last-minute response to critical vacancies, may reduce operational risk and provide greater continuity for children and families.

For services experiencing sustained difficulty filling teaching positions, several practical steps may assist in evaluating workforce options:

Align vacancies with recognised shortage occupations
Confirm that vacant roles correspond with occupations listed as being in shortage, such as Early Childhood Teacher.

Maintain comprehensive recruitment records
Evidence of genuine recruitment efforts is essential for employer-sponsored migration pathways. Maintain documentation of advertisements, applicant numbers, selection outcomes and the operational impact of ongoing vacancies.

Assess regional eligibility
Services located outside metropolitan Adelaide may be eligible for regional concessions under visa subclass 494 or through Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMAs), which can broaden eligibility settings.

Engage governance early
Use objective workforce data to inform board or management discussions. Framing sponsorship as a workforce risk mitigation strategy, rather than a discretionary cost, supports sound governance decision-making under Quality Area 7 of the NQF.

Sustained workforce shortages present risks to compliance, quality improvement planning and long-term service viability. Under the NQF, services must maintain prescribed educator-to-child ratios and ensure that educators meet qualification requirements.

Accessing skilled overseas professionals through compliant migration pathways may form part of a broader workforce strategy, alongside retention initiatives, professional development and local pipeline development.

Immigration pathways are complex and require careful compliance oversight. Providers should ensure that sponsorship obligations, workplace law requirements and NQF qualification standards are fully understood before proceeding.

As South Australia prepares for continued demand growth in early learning, workforce planning grounded in recognised labour market data will remain central to maintaining stable, high-quality service delivery.

Don’t miss a thing

Reminder for early childhood services: preparing for new digital device safety standards

As champions of child safety, it is crucial for early childhood education and care services to stay updated on the latest regulations. This is a reminder that from February 27, 2026, significant changes to the Education and Care Services National Law and National Regulations will come into effect.

WA provider fined after baby sustains burn in bottle warmer incident

A Western Australian approved provider has been fined $20,000 after an eight-month-old child sustained a deep partial thickness burn in a babies room incident involving a bottle warmer.

Universal not Uniform: building an early childhood system that is universal and flexible

When early childhood experts argue in favour of a universal system, they are not proposing a one size-fits-all solution. This sector has many different providers, including government, private and not for profit providers, across the spectrum of large national operators to small single site family businesses or community groups. There is also a spectrum of service models, from family day care and in-home care, to preschool, kindergarten and long day care centres, as well as outside school hours care and multi-purpose child and family hubs. Communities are diverse and families have different needs; it is important to provide choice and flexibility.

Tasmanian Government responds to Labor’s early learning policy shift

Tasmania’s Minister for Education, Jo Palmer, has responded to the Opposition’s newly announced early learning policy, arguing it mirrors a reform proposed by the Liberal Government a decade ago.

The First Democracy

It’s the start of the year in a kindergarten; a small boy stands at the threshold of a room he has never entered before and performs the oldest human calculation. He doesn’t have the words for it, not yet. He has only a body that tightens and loosens, a hand that searches for something to hold, an instinct that swivels between curiosity and fear. The room is bright and loud in the gentle way early childhood rooms are loud with life. There is the soft thud of blocks, the high astonishment of a laugh, the sudden, theatrical grief of a toy taken and returned. There are photographs on the wall in which children are mid-flight, jumping, running, leaning into each other as if gravity were a negotiable agreement. There is the smell of fruit and sunscreen and disinfectant and paint, a cocktail of care.

Reminder for early childhood services: preparing for new digital device safety standards

WA provider fined after baby sustains burn in bottle warmer incident

A Western Australian approved provider has been fined $20,000 after an eight-month-old child sustained a deep partial thickness burn in a babies room incident involving a bottle warmer.

Universal not Uniform: building an early childhood system that is universal and flexible

Tasmanian Government responds to Labor’s early learning policy shift

Tasmania’s Minister for Education, Jo Palmer, has responded to the Opposition’s newly announced early learning policy, arguing it mirrors a reform proposed by the Liberal Government a decade ago.