28 NOV 2023

Data insights

Teaching professionals: skills opportunities and challenges (2023 update)

Previous chapter Next chapter

Summary

Teaching professionals, who mainly work in the education sector, account for around 6 per cent of all employment in the EU. They fulfil various tasks in teaching and learning, including: the delivery of classes, courses, or tutorials across all educational levels; the design and modification of education curricula; and provision of advice on the use of various teaching methods. Jobs within this group include university, higher education, vocational school, secondary school, and primary school teachers, early childhood educators, and information technology trainers.

Key facts

More than 10 million people were employed as teaching professionals in 2022, which accounts for 5 per cent of the total EU employment.
Between 2012 and 2022, teaching professional employment increased by 17 per cent.
Teaching professionals were central in maintaining the provision of education during the surge of the Covid-19 pandemic. Their employment increased by more than 700 thousand workers between 2019 and 2020. Employment increased further and by the end of 2022, it was more than 1 million above its 2019 level.
Most teaching professionals – 88 per cent in 2021 - are employed in the education sector.
The vast majority of teaching professionals (88 per cent) have attained a qualification level of ISCED 5 or above in 2021, equivalent to upper secondary education/ post-secondary non-tertiary education. The qualification level of the occupation is not expected to change much over the period to 2035.
Teaching professionals are mainly women (72 per cent in 2021).
The employment of teaching professionals is projected to increase by 6 per cent between 2022 and 2035.
Teaching professionals of the future will have to cope with the increasing diffusion of digital tools in classrooms across all educational stages and teach students how to properly use these tools. The increase in the provision of asynchronous forms or learning will also affect the skillsets of teaching professionals in the future.

Employment and job demand

Employment growth of teaching professionals was initially low in the past decade, then accelerated very rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, employment growth has slowed down substantially.

Figure 1: Year-to-year employment change for teaching professionals (2013-2022)

Data-insights-2023-23.1

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Employed persons by detailed occupation (ISCO-08 two-digit level) [LFSA_EGAI2D__custom_7778289]. Own calculations.

More than one third of teaching professionals (38 per cent) are engaged as primary school and early childhood teachers, and 28 percent are engaged as secondary education teachers.

The rest of teaching professionals are engaged as other teaching professionals (language, music, arts, special needs teachers or ICT trainers), university and higher education teachers, and vocational education teachers.

Over time, the employment of primary and early childhood teachers is growing rapidly, while for other detailed occupations it remains rather stable.

Figure 2: Employment in teaching professionals’ jobs (in %)

Data-insights-2023-23.2
Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

The majority of OJAs for teaching professionals are for other teaching professionals (specialized knowledge) and higher education teachers. The demand for other teaching professionals, who also include the ICT trainers and teachers of other specialised knowledge fields is higher in the OJAs, because it is driven more by private employers than the public sector and could have expanded a lot also because of new training needs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and needs to incorporate new technologies and business practices on a large scale. Primary and secondary school teachers’ vacancies may also be advertised via different channels than the OJAs, and their job turnover is generally lower, resulting in lower needs of employers to advertise for new posts.

For more details on skills demand and job openings for this occupation, please access the Cedefop’s Skills OVATE tool.

Figure 3: Online job advertisements for teaching professionals (2022, in %)

Source: Skills in Online Job Advertisements indicator based on Cedefop’s Skills OVATE. Own calculations. Note: Online job advertisements are by definition not equivalent to job vacancies. See Beręsewicz (2021) or Napierala et al. (2022).

The education sector employs the majority of teaching professionals (88 per cent in 2021). The remaining 12 per cent of teaching professionals’ employment is distributed across various sectors.

Figure 4: The top sectors employing teaching professionals (in %)

Data-insights-2023-23.4
Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

The share of employment in each country varies from just over 3 per cent in Romania to over 7 per cent in Iceland. These shares have not changed much over time.

Figure 5: Teaching professionals as a share of country employment (2021, in %)

Data-insights-2023-23.5
Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.
Note: Data for CY, EE, IS, LV and LU have lower reliability because of the small sample size.
LFS data for MT are not available.

The workforce is composed mainly of women female (72 per cent in 2021). The age composition of teaching professionals has remained almost unchanged over time and while the share of workers aged 50 or more is more than one third, the inflow of young people into the occupation recently grew, which is a good sign.

Figure 6: Teaching professionals by age (in %)

Data-insights-2023-23.6
Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

The shares of teaching professionals reporting part-time or temporary employment are larger than the shares of atypical work across all occupations. They also tend to have longer job tenures, resulting in smaller share of new hires yearly, especially in the case of early, primary, and secondary education teachers.

Figure 7: Contract and hiring trends for teaching professionals (in %)

Data-insights-2023-23.7
Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

Skill needs and future trends

As workers in the education sector, teaching professionals need mainly interpersonal and innovation skills. They focus on communication, and training others and report a higher frequency of literacy-related tasks. Digital skills are also in high demand, and almost half of teachers reported having to learn to work with new software recently.

Changing skill needs also indicate a higher need for further training – both overall and digital upskilling needs are higher than what is all occupations average.

Teaching professionals report higher job satisfaction, which is quite commendable given the challenges of teachers’ professions, amplified by the Covid-19, but also higher job security, as only few are afraid of losing their jobs. Higher job security also implies higher job demand as employers may be struggling to fill in their vacancies.

Figure 8: Skills, training needs and job perception of teaching professionals (in %)

Data-insights-2023-23.8
Source: European Skills and Jobs Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.
Unless stated otherwise, it is a share of people reporting that a task/skill is part of their job.
*Always or often
** Share of workers reporting these needs to a great or moderate extent.

Overall, employment for teaching professionals is expected to increase by about 6 per cent over the period 2022 to 2035. Future employment change will however vary by country. Employment in most countries (17) grew in the past decade and it is forecast to do so in the next decade as well, while the rest are either stable or represent the opposite trend.

Figure 9: Past and expected future employment trends of teaching professionals

Data-insights-2023-23.9
Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Cedefop Skills Forecast.
Note: Data for CY, EE, IS, LV and LU have lower reliability because of the small sample size.
LFS data for MT are not available.

Most job openings are a result of people leaving them for other opportunities, or those leaving the labour market completely (retirements; parent leave and such). This replacement demand is often much more substantial, and in the case of the teaching professionals it exceeds the new job creation more than nine times, as it is estimated at 6.5 million.

Figure 10: Future job openings for teaching professionals (000s)

Data-insights-2023-23.10
Source: Future job openings indicator based on the Cedefop Skills Forecast. Own calculations.

Looking forward

Teaching professionals are challenged by various developments. They need to update their discipline-specific knowledge to be able to provide students with knowledge and skills related to the green and digital transitions. Their soft skills (such as communication, emotional intelligence and critical thinking) must be sharpened to cope with a new generation of students raised in the digital era, while they also need to keep pace with evolving teaching practices.

As digitalisation is inevitably transforming the education sector, teaching professionals need to master, be aware of, and critically assess the innovative technological solutions applied in education (Fore, 2021). The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will have a big impact on the teaching methods as well as on their objectives across the various sectors of education. Teachers will be at the forefront of mastering and critically assessing digital tools in all education levels. During their first three years of life, children grow and learn at the fastest rate, which requires specific approaches from educators when it comes to digitalisation (OECD, 2020). In early childhood education, teachers should adequately prepare children for participation in the digital society – knowing when, where and how to use digital tools and when these should be avoided (Lindeman et al, 2021). In secondary education, teachers will need to be proficient in digital tools and technologies to prepare their students for success in the digital age. Digitalisation drives also a shift in pedagogical approaches from one-size-fits-all to personalisation. Digital personalised learning could help teachers offer better personalised instruction that takes into account a wide variety of personal needs of students (Van Schoors et al, 2020). Digitalisation affects the pedagogical and research processes within higher education institutions (Castro Benavides et al, 2020). A European response to such needs is the Digital Education Action Plan, which aims to promote blended learning for primary and secondary education, digital transformation of education providers, guidelines for the use of data and AI for educators, digital literacy guidelines for teachers as well as women’s participation in STEM (European Commission, 2020).
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education carries with itself great potential but it should be progressively introduced with responsibility in clearly defined frameworks. The application of AI in education takes multiple forms, which future teachers should consider. These include intelligent tutoring systems, automated writing evaluation, and smart robots, but also AI-driven discussion forum monitoring and other assistance (Miao et al, 2021). The recent emergence of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT has great potential in assisting students during their learning activities. Teachers need however to master such tools and provide students with directions on the proper use of such tools (e.g., what questions should be asked) to achieve better learning results.
Remote and asynchronous means of teaching and learning were on the rise and their use took off during the pandemic. The percentage of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU reporting that they did an online course or used online learning material in the last three months prior to the survey increased from 16% in 2017 to 27% in 2021 (Eurostat). Teaching professionals must adapt to the more frequent use of such methods and exploit their potential for delivering quality teaching. Apart from the must-have digital skills (i.e., technical knowledge to operate the digital platform) classroom management skills are also needed. These include strategies to establish teacher presence, develop relationships, foster interaction, manage the course and teach content remotely when the screen is the main tool of connection (Rehn et al., 2018).
Demand for more tailored and “anytime, anywhere” knowledge was on the rise even prior to the pandemic. Adapting to new technologies and concepts (such as sustainability) frequently demands immediate training, while in some sectors, such as construction, workers are frequently on the move and can’t afford to sit on-site lengthy classes. Formal education and training providers resort to short-time courses, which are often available online and lead to certification (e.g., micro-credentials) to address these needs (Cedefop, 2022). Development and delivery of such courses is however no easy fit.
Learning for sustainability is another framework that is set to impact the education sector for the next generation. The Council Recommendation to stimulate learning for the green transition and sustainable development has set sustainability as a priority area for education policy in the EU. The European sustainability competence framework – GreenComp defines a set of 12 transversal and soft skills needed from educators to achieve a greener European future, including, among others, promoting systems thinking, futures literacy, adaptability, and collective and individual action (Bianchi et al, 2022). European universities are actively developing research on climate change and its impact, as well as strategies to cope with it. Core activities in higher education are increasingly of interdisciplinary nature to cope with the complex problems of the modern world – this includes changes and innovation of teaching and learning methods (EUA, 2022).
Teachers are increasingly faced with various complex problems such as identifying and handling students’ depression and harassment. Bullying is a particular challenge and it includes physical, psychological, verbal, cyber, racial and sexual bullying. In Europe, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people, and 20% of young people suffer from mental disorders (e.g. anxiety and depression). Addressing the mental health crisis amongst young people requires measures at different levels, one of which is the need to train teachers (and staff) in the provision of psychosocial support (Unicef, 2021). Teachers, who are competent in recognising bullying, are more likely to intervene effectively in cases of bullying and victimisation. Such competences can be acquired through professional training (De Luca et al, 2019).
Ageing demographics among teaching professionals and precautionary measures during the recent pandemic have created teacher shortages across Europe. Countries have resorted to contracting teachers, and devised strategies to ensure the sustainability of the profession in the next decades (Albert et al, 2022). The school staff shortages can lead to authorities cutting learning hours, increasing class size, and lowering recruitment standards. Many staff with qualifications and adequate training are quitting because of burnout, low pay, and the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic (Jack & Cocco, 2022). This jeopardises the transfer of critical experience from older to younger professionals in the education sector.

The curricula of teaching professionals will need redrafting to accommodate knowledge on sustainability and digital technologies and competences on how to pass it on to students. Additional learning is required to upskill professionals already in the field. Initial and continuous professional development is recognised as an important means to achieve these goals. The European Trade Union Committee for Education has recently announced a Framework of Actions on the Attractiveness of the Teaching Profession. The framework lays out a comprehensive programme that, among other things, aims to address initial teacher training and continuous professional development, including the development of strategies and reforms to increase the quality of initial training by encompassing the implications of the green and digital transitions. The framework also places importance on the deployment of highly trained mentors and further recognition of continuous professional development programmes.

An example of initial training, where such transversal skills are addressed is the master’s degree programme in Pedagogy and Teaching for Sustainability, offered at the University of Eastern Finland. The two-year programme looks at sustainability from ecological, cultural and social point of view, while providing academic tools for developing students’ theoretical and empirical understanding of sustainability. Another example of teacher training with transversal competences is the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Resilience in Educational Contexts (EMJM FLOURISH), which initiates its first edition in October 2023. The Master, particularly relevant after the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, seeks to develop the capacity of educators to nurture the resilience of children from marginalised backgrounds, as a lot of attention is given to mental health and wellbeing.

On top of national qualifications, there is increasing cross-European internationalisation of teacher training, such as the Erasmus+ Teacher Academies, which encourage multilingualism, language awareness and cultural diversity via deep transitional cooperation between teacher training institutions. The Erasmus+ Teacher Academies support innovation and development in teacher training, including digital, sustainable, and inclusive competences. The European Education Area target of creating 25 such academies by 2025 has been met ahead of schedule.

These academies cross sectors in the pursuit of a wider transversal skillset for future teachers. For example, the GEO-Academy seeks to ‘prepare the groundwork for a unified framework to foster teachers’ pedagogical, digital, green and spatial skills needed for successful Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programmes’. Meanwhile, the 21st Century European Teachers project will prepare teachers to address contemporary global issues by developing teaching in the emerging subject areas of technological empowerment, sustainable learning, playful learning and entrepreneurship. The IDEAL (Integrated Digital Educational Leadership for the Future Teaching Academy) will pursue digital education of teachers.

In an ever faster changing world, lifelong learning and continuous professional development will be essential features of the future skills development of teaching professionals. Flexible and adaptable learning experiences, like micro-credentials will be part of continuous skills development. Micro-credentials are short-term certified learning experiences that offer a targeted way to help people develop their knowledge, skills, and competences they need for personal and professional development. The largest European provider of teacher training courses, the Europass Teacher Academy offers 250 short term courses across Europe in 29 locations. Their extensive catalogue focuses on courses covering themes such as Arts and Wellbeing, Classroom Management, Creativity and Soft Skills, ICT, Languages, and School Innovation.

The European Schoolnet Academy, which is run by an alliance of European ministries of education, offers a catalogue of MOOCs (massive open online courses) for the professional development of teaching professionals. For example, ‘Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom Rerun’ is addressed to primary and secondary school teachers, who wish to take sustainability education forward in the classroom. The ‘Unlocking the Power of AI in Education’ provides teachers with basic understanding of artificial intelligence on the conceptual level, in production and use of educational data, and through the lens of ethical challenges.

As regards digital competences, the SELFIE for Teachers is a free online tool developed within the framework of the Digital Education Action Plan. It can be used for self-assessment and upgrading of digital competences of primary and secondary teaching professionals. On the SELFIE platform, teachers can receive personalised feedback and see potential learning pathways to strengthen their digital competences.

How to cite this publication:

Cedefop (2023). Teaching professionals: skills opportunities and challenges. Skills intelligence data insight.

Teaching professionals: skills opportunities and challenges (2023 update)

Summary

Employment and job demand

Skill needs and future trends

Looking forward

Further reading

Data insights details

Table of contents

Your Opinion Matters