Categories: News

New study finds teachers face excessive financial strain from unpaid placement

Teachers must work for almost a decade before they accrue more income than a minimum wage worker, finds new study.

<h2><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">A new study has uncovered the extent of financial hardships borne by trainee teachers and other professionals like nurses and social workers due to unpaid placements&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">The study found that it takes 11 years since starting study for a teacher who completes a three-year Bachelor of Teaching to accumulate a higher aggregate income than a minimum wage worker for the same period&period; This figure includes course fees and living expenses&period; If an individual does not take out a loan for their three-year degree&comma; it will still take them nine-and-a-half years to catch up to the earnings of a minimum wage worker&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;latest-print-issue&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><b>Read the latest print edition of <em>School News<&sol;em> online HERE&period;<&sol;b><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">The authors concluded factors such as lost income and student loan repayments compound&comma; and create long term financial effects that disadvantage workers who must take unpaid placements – not just during their training years&comma; but long into their professional careers&period;<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">The study from the University of Canterbury was coauthored by Dr Leighton Watson&comma; a senior lecturer of Mathematics and Statistics&period; He used a mathematical model to estimate the financial burden undertaken by professional trainees&period; Watson said he became interested in the subject as his wife is a primary school teacher&comma; which brought his attention to the issue of unpaid placement work&period;<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;32956" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-32956" style&equals;"width&colon; 240px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignright"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-32956" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2025&sol;02&sol;Staff&lowbar;ProfileMaths&lowbar;StatisticsLeighton&lowbar;Watson-1-240x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"240" height&equals;"300" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-32956" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Coauthor Dr Leighton Watson&period; Image&colon; Supplied&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Watson said that he wanted to turn an economic lens on the negative impacts of unpaid placement&comma; as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;policy decisions are not driven by sentiment&comma; but more driven by numbers&&num;8230&semi; and I think the numbers are quite staggering&period;” <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">The study also estimated that a teacher would have to work nine years after graduating to accumulate more in retirement savings than someone who worked a minimum wage job&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Crucially&comma; Watson says these estimates &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;are massively conservative”&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">He points out that the mathematical model necessarily makes a number of assumptions and eliminates complicating factors&period; For instance&comma; it doesn’t account for financial costs of taking time off or having dependents&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">The model also assumes the control group to be a minimum wage worker who stays in their minimum wage job indefinitely&period; Anecdotally&comma; it doesn’t seem to be the case that minimum wage workers stay in those jobs for their whole careers&period; Often&comma; workers will receive promotions to higher-paid positions&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In that case&comma; the teachers are never&comma; ever going to catch up&period;” <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Watson points out the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;important observation” that many of these professions are female dominated&comma; whereas professions with paid training – police officers&comma; firefighters&comma; for example – are predominantly male-dominated&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Even if a teacher doesn’t borrow any money or pay any course fees&comma; it still takes them about 19 years before they cumulatively make more money than a police officer despite having a higher salary&period; The question is then&colon; are we valuing police officers more than teachers&quest; And the numbers here seem to argue that&period;”<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;32955" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-32955" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-32955 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2025&sol;02&sol;Figure1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"747" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-32955" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Figure from the study depicting mathematical models used to calculate financial costs of unpaid training in comparison to minimum wage work and paid training&period; Image&colon; Supplied&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Watson’s coauthor is Bex Howells&comma; who is the campaign lead at Paid Placements Aotearoa&period; The organisation has been campaigning for paid placements in these professions&period; A bill is currently being considered before select committee&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Paid placements are not a novel idea&period; In Australia&comma; the <&sol;span><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;education&period;gov&period;au&sol;higher-education&sol;commonwealth-prac-payment" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank"><span data-contrast&equals;"none">Commonwealth Prac Payment<&sol;span><&sol;a><span data-contrast&equals;"auto"> was announced last year to help support students in nursing&comma; teaching and social work placements&period; The Australian Government has invested &dollar;427&period;4 million over four years to support students in these professions to ease cost-of-living pressures&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">From July this year&comma; eligible students undertaking a mandatory placement can access AUD319&period;50 per week to help cover costs during their placement&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">In their factsheet on the payment&comma; the Australian Government states it is an &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;invest&lbrack;ment&rsqb; in critical workforces”&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">In New Zealand&comma; teachers and healthcare workers were paid during training under an old model&period; Police&comma; firefighters&comma; customs and corrections staff are currently paid during training&period;<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4><b><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Is financial strain exacerbating teaching shortage&quest;<&sol;span><&sol;b><span data-contrast&equals;"auto"> <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Last Friday&comma; the Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Projection by the Ministry of Education published its findings that schools could be short 1250 teachers in the near future&period; These shortages would be driven by immigration pressures on school rolls and the requirements for classroom release time&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">In their paper&comma; Watson and Howell suggest that the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;financial sacrifice” of a professional degree like teaching is creating a barrier to entry and exacerbating the worker shortage&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;New Zealand and other countries using this same educational model are struggling to train and retain people in these skilled professions&period; This exacerbates existing diversity issues in the workforce as the financial sacrifice is even more challenging for those with dependents&comma; existing financial commitments&comma; or a lack of family support&comma;” states the paper&period;<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The financial strain can be a significant deterrent for many&period;” <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">President of PPTA Te Wehengarua Chris Abercrombie agreed the financial burden of training was likely to deter teaching candidates&comma; worsening the shortage&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A significant number of university graduates simply cannot afford&comma; or are not prepared to sacrifice&comma; a year of unpaid initial teacher education&period; So unpaid placements deter many graduates and potential career-change teachers from even considering secondary teaching as an option&period; Some are forced to leave part way through the training as they cannot afford it&period;<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Most students need enough to cover their living costs&comma; travel expenses&comma; course related costs&comma; and lost income on placement&period; In other words&comma; they need to be paid for the work that by its nature excludes them from doing other paid work during that period and has a major impact on their lifetime earnings&period;<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Making teaching salaries attractive and removing the barrier of unpaid placements would have a positive effect on attracting more graduates into secondary teaching&comma; which we sorely need&comma; given the current worsening shortage&period;”<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Naomii Seah

Naomii Seah is a writer and journalist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has been covering education in New Zealand since 2022.

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