And for career-changer Quimby Masters, who will teach humanities at Mount Rowan this year, one program in particular has helped make the transition to the classroom a little easier.

Ms Masters, who has had a long career in community development at a regional health service, began studying a Masters of Secondary Education with Federation University last year, which included a teaching placement at Mount Rowan.

Through the state government's Initial Teacher Education program, she is now employed as a teacher at the school while also having allocated time to complete her studies.

"It means a teacher can be studying at uni at the same time as teaching," said principal Seona Murnane. "Quimby is employed 0.8 but her teaching load is 0.6 so it gives her more freedom to have time for study as well as being in the classroom and learning on the ground."

Because she spent time at the school on placement, it also means Ms Masters already knows the staff, students and culture of the school ahead of her first day in the classroom.

Mount Rowan will this year have two teachers employed through the ITE program, after having three last year. Several other Ballarat schools also employ staff through ITE. This year Mount Clear College and Phoenix P-12 Community College will each have three, Woodmans Hill Secondary College has two, and Beaufort Secondary College and Ballarat Specialist School each have one.

The death of her husband in 2021 forced Ms Masters to reassess her future and change careers so she could be home with her children more during school holidays, particularly during the summer bushfire season on their rural property.

"Teaching was a good fit for that, and I really like teenagers ... because they are very honest, up-front and can recognise when you are trying to pull it over on them. They want to engage with the world, they are becoming more aware of injustice and problems and things need to be fixed.

"So there were practical reasons, but it also seemed like a good way to help with that conversation, to hopefully help teens find their place in the world."

During her placement at Mount Rowan, Ms Masters felt like she "gelled" with the staff, was well supported and would enjoy working there.

She also learned plenty about teaching a classroom of teens.

Looking ahead to her first day of teaching, Ms Masters said it was "pretty scary" but she knew she had a lot of support.

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Ms Murnane said one of the benefits of the program was that she had already seen her newest recruit in the classroom, knew what supports she would need, and Ms Masters had already built a relationship with staff and students.

Ms Murnane has also recruited a maths teacher from Gippsland to move to Ballarat to take up a position at the school through the government's targeted funding initiative.

The TFI program offers various incentives to teachers including money toward moving costs and bonuses if they move more than a certain distance to take up a new job or to take up a designated "hard to staff" position.

"It's really good to recruit in regional areas to get people maybe from the city or across the state to your school. If a person is choosing, and there's plenty of choice even in Ballarat, they might look at a TFI position over another school," she said.

According to a state government spokesperson, Ballarat has 14 extra teachers and teaching students in 2023 thanks to its incentive programs.

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