Professional teaching experience at Monash Education

Supervised professional experience is fundamental to all our teacher education courses to ensure that our graduates are career-ready.

At Monash, you get real-life experience right from the start of your course - in your first year. But don’t worry, before you start placements, you’ll have a preparation class so you know what to expect when you go to a school, what to wear, where to go, how to act professionally, and much more! You’ll also get lots of support from our Professional Experience Office and your mentor teacher during your placement so you can get the most out of your experience.

As you complete placement every year, you will experience a variety of day-to-day activities which will form part of your future job - working in a classroom, talking with parents, being on yard duty, going on excursions, preparing lesson plans, delivering lessons and much more. You will also experience different teaching approaches and environments, such as team teaching. By your final semester you will be taking classes and planning lessons.

The total number of supervised teaching days varies depending on your program and year level. You’ll complete a minimum of 80 days during a Bachelor of Education (Honours), or a minimum of 60 days during a Master of Teaching.

Professional experience provides opportunities to establish contacts and build professional relationships within your chosen field. This can often lead to employment upon graduation.

We organise placements for you

We take away the stress of finding your own placements. Our dedicated Professional Experience Office liaises with a range of preschools, kindergartens and schools, and arranges all placements on your behalf. Students are not expected to arrange their own placements.

Rural and interstate placement opportunities

As well as completing placements in local schools and educational settings in and around Melbourne, you have the opportunity to do a regional or rural placement.

Overseas opportunities

After two years of international travel restrictions due to covid-19, we are gradually resuming our International Professional Experience (IPE) program. We are excited to offer professional experience in Fiji and Italy.

If you choose to go on IPE, you will invariably develop cultural appreciation and skills to work with learners from different backgrounds. You will also help us make a contribution to the host schools and communities in those countries.