Teach For Austria

Elementary school receive support

Primary school teachers do not need a teaching degree.

(Bild: africa-studio.com (Olga Yastremska and Leonid Yastremskiy))

The shortage of teachers requires great efforts: The city is expanding the Teach For Austria program. From the 2025/26 school year, a total of 25 fellows will provide support in the classrooms. The focus is on schools with children from socially disadvantaged families. 

The shortage of teachers is accelerating once again due to the influx of families. This makes lateral entrants all the more important. The city is currently supporting "Teach For Austria" in setting up the new program for primary schools with funding of around 120,000 euros. The educational initiative has been running successfully at Viennese secondary schools and kindergartens for 12 years. A gap will be closed with elementary school from the 2024/25 school year. In the first two years, it is planned to deploy 25 Fellows Fellows in 20 Viennese all-day elementary school with a high density of children from socially disadvantaged families. In Vienna, over 50 percent of schools fall into this category.

Career changers are to be placed on an equal footing with trained teachers
Initially, they will be in the classroom with a second teacher, but soon they will have their own class and be regarded as fully-fledged teachers. However, there will be a reduction in salary. "I would like to change that, but it would require a change at federal level," says education councillor Christoph Wiederkehr (Neos). In a four-month intensive training course, they should learn the necessary skills, especially pedagogical skills. The selection process at Teach For Austria is strict and takes time, which is why the training won't start until the school year after next.

We urgently need teaching staff at elementary school. Initiatives such as "Teach For Austria" are a great support here. We are focusing in particular on socially disadvantaged locations.

Bildungsstadtrat Christoph Wiederkehr

Bild: Lukas Zimmer

So the staff shortage in the fall won't solve that. How are things looking at the moment? "So far, there are more applications than vacancies, but that doesn't mean that all of them are suitable. In any case, there will be another application window in the summer. Everything is still open until the fall," says Wiederkehr.