Choice Preschool Kindergarten Director Karthika Viknarasah says that although staffing at the centre is full at the moment, she has capped enrolments in readiness for next month when her international students, who had been allowed to work full-time as a measure during covid, will have to go back to working no more than 24 hours a week.
“We have been lucky to recruit some great students studying childcare but come July, there will be staffing gaps to fill,” she said.
“The Government has made an exception for aged care centre staff, with students still permitted to work full-time, so I’m hoping they will consider doing the same thing for childcare staff or many services will be hugely impacted.”
Across a single week in February 2023, according to the ACA survey, more than two thirds of the 627 centres surveyed confirmed enrolments that week had been capped, which equated to a total of 16,300 places cut off from Australian families.
