Bachelor of Education (Primary and Secondary)

Most initial teacher education degrees pick a lane, primary or secondary, but this ACU course runs 320 credit points to give graduates both: a broad primary teaching qualification plus one specialist secondary teaching area. It's a longer, more demanding structure, but it produces a graduate who can move between a Year 4 classroom and a Year 10 specialist subject, which matters in regional and outer-suburban schools where staffing flexibility counts.

The unit structure separates education theory (the EDES-coded units, including a mandatory unit on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges, histories and cultures) from discipline-specific curriculum and pedagogy units, and from the EDET-coded "effective teaching" sequence that runs across all four years, tying theory back to classroom practice each semester rather than leaving it until the practicum blocks.

Professional experience is substantial: a minimum of 80 days of supervised placement, plus a required 25 hours of direct service delivered through a dedicated social justice and community engagement unit (EDES206). Graduates come out eligible for provisional teacher registration and, given the primary-and-secondary combination, tend to have an easier time picking up early-career roles in schools that need coverage across both bands.