Community Kids beats childcare crisis by investing in team

By Jay Bryce

Mar 6, 2023

Program graduate: Teuta Veis is one of the assistant centre managers at Community Kids Shepparton. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Community Kids Shepparton is beating the sector-wide childcare worker shortage by investing in its own team.

Community Kids is part of the national early learning organisation G8 Education, which launched its bachelor scholarship program four years ago.

The program supports students on a tertiary study pathway with financial, academic and mentoring assistance.

Community Kids Shepparton assistant centre manager Teuta Veis was a teacher in Albania before moving to Australia in 2011.

“I wanted to continue my teaching career when I moved to Australia; however, I was unsure of the process and was concerned I wouldn’t get the support I needed,” she said.

Ms Veis has been working at Community Kids Shepparton for almost a decade after completing a certificate 3, and was the first of 25 program graduates to accept a full-time teaching position with G8 Education.

Learning in action: Alannah Joseph, 3, Isabelle Veis, 2, Poppi Briggs, 3, and teacher Teuta Veis. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

“I sent in my resume (to Community Kids Shepparton), they say ‘stay’ that day, so I stayed, and then I finished diploma and always wanted to continue my teaching,” Ms Veis said.

She said she had been enrolled at La Trobe University while working at Community Kids, but found out about G8’s scholarship and re-enrolled at the same university in 2019, but this time through G8.

“They want all of us to upgrade our skills, so they offer a free program for all the educators, it’s a great program for all of us,” she said.

“You upgrade your skills, you come in and you know more than you used to before.”

Ms Veis said it was very different working in Australia than Albania, but that after some adjustment she was really enjoying her role at Community Kids.

Family affair: Isabelle Veis with her mother, Teuta Veis. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

“I’m enjoying being a kinder teacher as well, I’m running the pre-kinder as well, so it was a great opportunity for me because now I’m implementing the skills I got from the studies,” she said.

Ms Veis said she was grateful to have had the opportunity to have studied overseas and in Australia, and that she felt more confident than ever in her teaching abilities.

“I would recommend it (the program) to all educators — you get free study time, you get a mentor that helps you during the study times, you have free placement, you do the placement during your studies and you get pay as well, so it’s really good support,” she said.

“It’s just an amazing opportunity for all the educators.”