Her search for a full-time job as a teacher has continued for almost six years since she completed a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of teaching at the University of Newcastle. 'It is like being a dogsbody': Brielle Finney. Credit:Brianne Makin She took a year off teaching to work as an accounts officer because of the instability of casual teaching. "I am now considering my options as I can't rely on casual work as a teacher with a baby and a mortgage," she said. "I'm fully accredited and good at my job. I have special education codes [experience] as well as mainstream-trained but it's very difficult to get a job in Newcastle."

As universities continue to pump out ever increasing numbers of teaching graduates, the new crop are joining more than 44,000 already trained teachers in NSW on a waiting list for a permanent job. Last year only half of the 16,000 trainee teachers who graduated across Australia that year had secured permanent employment four months after graduating. Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal government funding is being spent to train teachers who have little chance of getting a job. Stephen Dinham, a professor of education at the University of Melbourne, accuses universities and colleges of using teaching courses as a "cash cow", exploiting the federal government's decision to remove a cap on university places. Professor Dinham said better workforce planning was needed to limit the number of Commonwealth-supported places for primary education to address the oversupply. He said the uncapping of undergraduate university places had also reduced the quality of education standards.

"It is quite unethical to let people train in an occupation they are not going to be employed in," he said. "There are quite a number of non-traditional colleges that are getting into the teacher training business through being registered providers. This is adding to the pool, particularly for primary and early childhood teaching. "Moving those resources to filling vacancies in secondary maths, science, languages and special education could be fairly cost neutral. "We need proper workforce planning rather than people saying it is entirely a university decision as to how many people they train." In NSW last year, 6966 students graduated as new teachers but only 2200 permanent jobs were available in government schools. About 1000 of those jobs were advertised, which meant that new graduates had to compete with more experienced colleagues.

The Education Department gives priority to new graduates, with more than 400 getting a permanent job last year, but only those on a scholarship are guaranteed work. Andrew Jackson is one of more than 44,000 trained teachers in NSW on a waiting list for a permanent job. Most on the waiting list - 25,374 - are waiting for a full-time job with a primary school, with the remaining 18,888 looking for work at a high school. Since graduating with an arts degree and a diploma of education from Macquarie University in 2012, Mr Jackson has been working as a casual teacher. At university, he was given the impression he would find work "easily and quickly once you leave uni". But a frustrating two years followed before he found steady casual work. "I know two or three people who have left the idea of teaching altogether because they haven't been able to get a job," he said. "I experienced two years of frustration to find work. I'm still looking for a permanent job.

"Universities keep accepting a vast volume of students and pumping out qualified graduates that are unable to get the work." Brielle Finney, 23, graduated with a teaching qualification from the University of Wollongong last year. She studied marketing and advertising before doing a diploma of education. She has been disappointed at being unable to consistently teach the same class of students throughout the year and is considering leaving the profession. "I started this year fresh and super excited to have a class and teach, but after every day of doing casual teaching it has become unmotivating. It is not structured. It is like being a dogsbody," she said. "When you are looking for a job, schools want experience but no one is going to give you that experience. They are giving the jobs to experienced teachers.

"Long-term, I would like to get a mortgage and buy a unit but I know I can't on a casual wage." Lydia Karp, 25, moved from Sydney to Byron Bay six months ago to improve her chances of getting a job. She has been working in casual positions since completing her primary education studies at the University of Technology two years ago. While it is still difficult looking for a full-time job, she has improved her chances of getting more regular casual work. Melbourne University professor of education John Hattie says that of the 30,457 students in Australia who studied to be a teacher last year, just over half - 16,650 - completed their qualification. Once they entered the workforce, only 50 per cent secured a full-time job as a teacher in a school within four months of graduating. Last year about 6966 students completed teacher education courses in NSW. According to department estimates, 3315 were qualified to teach at primary schools – the second highest number of graduates on record.

While a constant flow of graduates feed an oversupply of primary school teachers, there are pockets of shortages in isolated areas around the state. There is also a national shortage of secondary school maths and science teachers. The NSW Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron said many teaching positions that should be permanently filled were instead being filled with young casuals. "The government could improve the situation by ensuring schools fill all vacancies with permanent staff," he said. However, both the Australian Council of Deans of Education and University of Sydney Professor of Teaching Education Robyn Ewing said the waiting list figures overestimated the number of new graduates unable to find a permanent job. "Our experience is that the oversupply isn't nearly as high as that list would suggest," Professor Ewing said. "In terms of our graduates who are able to be flexible about where they are working, they are teaching."

Federal Minister for Education Christopher Pyne said that under the government's reforms "increased competition and the need to attract students will mean universities will focus on courses that have a clear career path for graduates". "The exciting thing about the reforms is that giving students the power to pick and choose a degree in a more competitive and dynamic environment will mean universities in partnership with industry may offer degrees with guaranteed jobs at the end of them," Mr Pyne said. The Commonwealth government spends about $10,000 to train each student who starts a one-year postgraduate course and almost $40,000 on students completing a four-year undergraduate teaching qualification. The Australian Productivity Commission's latest report for 2012 shows the federal government spent about $450 million on teacher training. The federal government said it spent about about $617 million on teacher education last year. The number being trained has grown from 15,596 in 2003 to 17,903 last year.

Latest available national figures show that more than 1500 students gain entry to teacher education courses around the country with an ATAR of less than 50. Angelo Gavrielatos, who heads the Australian Education Union, said the oversupply of teachers was reducing teacher quality. "We still see growth in the number of people enrolling and a further reduction in the initial teacher education training standards. We can't afford that," he said. "When there is no cap and there is a totally deregulated education system, what we will see is potentially even more students enrolling and standards further declining. "There are more graduating than there are vacancies and that's why we say there should be better workforce planning."