Over 180,000 early educators have now completed new mandatory child safety training within two months of it becoming available, with workers reporting very high satisfaction with the training.
Mandatory child safety training is one of the measures as part of the Government's $226 million package to strengthen safety in the child care sector.
From 27 February, existing staff have been given six months to complete the training. New staff must complete the training within 14 days.
This training is also compulsory for company directors and centre leadership.
The new training goes further than current child protection training. It covers topics including developing child safe policies and procedures, expectations for staff conduct, reporting obligations, and embedding a child safe culture in early learning settings.
Jobs and Skills Australia estimate there are around 270,000 workers in the early education and care sector. This means the equivalent of over 66 per cent of the workforce have now completed the training.
Early educators reported very high satisfaction with the Foundation training courses which became available at the end of February.
97 per cent say they would recommend the training, and participants reported increased confidence and ability to identify harmful behaviour and abuse.
Participants also reported strong confidence in the training with consistently high satisfaction across quality, clarity and relevance of the training.
The Advanced training courses will become available in July this year.
Our early educators are the best asset we have to keep our children safe. That's why we have introduced this mandatory safety training.
It has been developed by the Australian Centre for Child Protection and will give educators the skills they need to detect, stop and report abuse.
Up to $40 million each year from the existing Child Care Subsidy will support this.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:
"We have to do everything we can to ensure the safety of our children when they walk through or when they're carried through the doors of a child care centre.
"Our early educators are the best asset we've got to keep our children safe.
"They've been given six months to complete new safety training. The majority of them have done it in two months.
"It tells you a lot about how much they care about and want to protect our kids.
"Early educators have told us this training has already made them feel more confident and equipped to identify someone who might be up to no good."
Attributable to the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Jess Walsh:
"Our early educators are the best asset we have to keep children safe.
"This training will give them the skills and support they need to detect, stop and report abuse.
"And it's not just the educators - the training is also compulsory for company directors and management.
"It's encouraging to see such enthusiastic early take-up of this training, because every child deserves access to quality and safe early learning."
