Early childhood teachers have a myriad of possible employment options, with birth to eight years degree qualifications preparing graduates to work in a range of early childhood settings, including prior-to-school. At the same time, early childhood workforce policies in Australia, and elsewhere, are increasingly requiring degree-qualified teachers to be employed in prior-to-school settings. A growing number of reports and studies make a compelling case that there is a shortage of early childhood, degree-qualified teachers who are willing to work in prior-to-school settings, including centre-based child care. This conceptual article focuses on the imbalances in workforce policy and employment for early childhood teacher graduates. We examine the complexities and considerations of these imbalances, through exploration of literature and existing research, including small-scale studies and existing graduate destination data (Australian Graduate Survey). The article concludes with a proposed research agenda and suggestions to redress the imbalance of early childhood graduate teachers who are prepared, though seemingly not willing, to operationalise policy requirements for teachers to work in centre-based child care.

中文翻译：

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幼儿研究生教师的劳动力政策与就业之间的失衡：复杂性和考虑因素

幼儿教师具有多种可能的就业选择，他们拥有八年制学位证书，可为毕业生做好在各种幼儿环境（包括学前教育）中工作的准备。同时，澳大利亚及其他地区的幼儿劳动力政策日益要求在学前教育机构中聘请具有学历的教师。越来越多的报告和研究提出了令人信服的论据，表明缺乏愿意在学前环境中工作的幼儿，学位合格的教师，包括基于中心的儿童保育。这篇概念文章重点关注幼儿教师毕业生的劳动力政策和就业失衡。我们研究了这些失衡的复杂性和考虑因素，通过文献和现有研究的探索，包括小规模研究和现有研究生目的地数据（澳大利亚研究生调查）。文章最后提出了一项拟议的研究议程，并提出了一些建议，以纠正幼儿研究生教师的不平衡现象，尽管他们似乎不愿意，但他们准备落实教师在中心式儿童保育领域工作的政策要求。