Careers in learning support

Find out more about working in learning support and current vacancies with the Ministry of Education.

Working in learning support

Working in learning support is a challenging yet rewarding career.

You'll have the opportunity to work in partnership with:

  • young children
  • students
  • parents
  • caregivers
  • family and whānau, and
  • professional colleagues.

This work can be in many different environments, including schools, homes, early childhood education services, and residential schools.

Early intervention staff work with children and their families before they start school. Most school students with special education needs are taught in regular classroom environments. Learning support professionals and paraprofessionals work closely with classroom teachers to meet the needs of the students.

Check out our Learning Support website for more information on the different roles, study and scholarship information, frequently asked questions and more: 

About Learning Support roles(external link)

Staff profiles

A wide range of specialists work in learning support. Our specialist careers profiles feature the work of some of these staff, and the training and qualifications they bring to their role.

There are also profiles of Māori specialist staff who discuss their aspirations and how they reflect Māori world views in the way they work.

Specialist careers profiles

Job vacancies and training

The Ministry of Education employs specialists, teachers and support staff from a range of professions to work in learning support.

Ministry Careers(external link)

Job vacancies are also advertised in the Ministry's Education Gazette.

Education Gazette website(external link)

Careers New Zealand is a government-funded website providing New Zealand job, industry and training information, and links to relevant websites.

Careers New Zealand website(external link)

The TeachNZ website provides Information for overseas trained teachers considering coming to New Zealand to work.

TeachNZ website(external link)

Internships

Internships in education provide fixed-term employment, practice experience and supervision required for students from certain post-graduate programmes.

Psychology Internships at the Ministry of Education

Psychology internships in education provide fixed-term employment, practice experience and supervision required for students from one of three psychology post-graduate programmes. To qualify as a psychologist, you must undertake no less than 1500 hours of supervised practice.

Psychology Internships in education provide a great opportunity to access a rich variety of professional experience necessary to meet your course requirements, and supervised opportunities to interact with schools, whānau and ākonga.

Psychology internships in education are a fixed-term employment on the Ministry’s field staff collective agreement. Interns will be supervised by experienced psychologists. We encourage interns to consider smaller towns as opportunities exist outside our main cities.

Key information

Applications are welcome from 18 September 2023.

You must be enrolled in one of the below diplomas to be eligible to apply for this internship:

For more information about the post graduate courses please contact the Universities.

Study awards and scholarships

We offer learning support study awards for teachers in early learning services and schools, as well as scholarships to support people undertaking specific specialist courses.

Learning support study awards and scholarships

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