The teacher shortage in Austria stems from demographic changes, high workloads, a lack of skilled professionals, and the low attractiveness of the teaching profession. To address this issue, Austria has implemented alternative entry pathways, including lateral entry and early entry programs (Frey & Pichler 2022; Oyrer et al. 2023). Career changers, who hold higher education degrees, acquire necessary pedagogical qualifications through pedagogical courses. Early entry programs enable students who do not yet have a bachelor's degree to work as a teacher alongside their studies. Additionally, the duration of teacher training has been shortened to fill vacancies more rapidly. While these measures have certain advantages, concerns remain regarding the quality of training and the pedagogical competence of participants. Efforts are also being made to improve working conditions by reducing administrative burdens and implementing stress management strategies, aiming to enhance the profession's appeal. The empirical study presented here examined all new entrants to the teaching profession (n=785) in Austria in 2023/24, including regular graduates with bachelor's degrees (27.8%), master's degrees (9.9%), early entrants (19.7%), lateral entrants (33.6%), and individuals with special contracts (8.9%). Early entrants without teaching qualifications pursued their studies alongside their teaching roles, had an average age of 30 years. One-third of the participants (n=264) entered through lateral pathways, averaging over 42 years old. These career changers hold degrees in diverse fields such as humanities, social sciences, linguistics (25%), engineering and technical professions (19%), and economics (16%), with approximately 29% from other fields like early childhood education and arts. A significant proportion even of lateral and early entrants taught outside their areas of expertise: over 45% of lateral entrants and 30% of early entrants were partly teaching subjects they were not formally trained in. Most new teachers worked at a single location, teaching an average of 17 hours per week, though 32% taught over 22 hours weekly. Many also took on additional roles such as class leadership, learning support, and school development. New teachers also frequently undertook roles in administration, student supervision, and public relations, highlighting the broad range of responsibilities they faced in their first year. Summarizing, this study highlights the entry scenarios into the teaching profession in Austria. However, it remains unclear whether, given the many challenges at the entry stage, the teaching profession will become more attractive and whether the measures to address the teacher shortage will be sufficient.

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