Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, meets 2015 HSC students hoping to be teachers in the future: (from left to right) Morgan Adams from Picton High School, Rebecca Finlay and Gerogia Mazurkiewicz, both from Elderslie High School, and Ryan Bondfield from Sydney Secondary College, Black Wattle Bay Campus at UNSW School of Education.

Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli today encouraged high achieving HSC students to consider a career in teaching.

From 2016, aspiring teachers will need to achieve a minimum of three band 5 HSC results, including one in English, to study an accredited undergraduate teaching degree in NSW.

More than 69,000 NSW Year 12 students have now finished their formal schooling and must lodge their first round preferences for 2016 university courses next week.

“We already have high teaching standards in NSW schools. But we need the high achieving students of today to be the high achieving teachers of tomorrow,” Mr Piccoli said.

“The greatest in-school influence on students is quality teachers, so higher standards for future teachers are part of our plan to improve student results.

“Teaching is an incredibly important and rewarding job and I encourage this year’s HSC students to consider it as a career.”

Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards President, Tom Alegounarias, said higher standards mean future teachers will be sourced from the top 30 per cent of HSC students.

“Teaching is a demanding profession. As well as a passion for their subject, teachers also need the academic capacity to master that subject and develop the skill of teaching,” Mr Alegounarias said.

NSW was the first state to set minimum academic standards for entry into undergraduate teaching degrees and to require literacy and numeracy tests for teacher education students ahead of graduation.

Education ministers last week agreed to follow the NSW approach and require all student teachers to sit the test and demonstrate they have literacy and numeracy skills in the top 30 per cent of the population before they can graduate.