Education
Education Occupations
Employment growth for this occupational group was above average, with an additional 39,200 persons employed over the five-year period. Three quarters of those employed were female and most were Irish citizens. The demand for primary teachers is projected to decrease over the next decade, driven by declining numbers of enrolments, although the extent to which the continued war in Ukraine will impact future enrolment figures is as yet unclear. Increasing enrolments at post-primary level until the latter part of this decade are expected to result in an under-supply of post-primary teachers until the mid-2030s.
Issues with recruiting and retaining teachers have been highlighted at both primary level (e.g. regional issues and/or availability of substitute teachers) and for post-primary teachers (subject-specific). The on-going cost of living crisis and lack of affordable housing, which is having a negative impact on the recruitment and retention of key workers across several economic sectors, is deemed to be a significant factor. Policy responses to issues with sourcing teachers have included increasing the number of places on teacher training courses as well as the expansion of free upskilling programmes which seeks to increase the number of qualified teachers in high-demand subjects.
Skills shortages:
Subject-specific secondary teachers