Education authorities in Vienna are facing a major challenge as hundreds of teaching positions in the city’s kindergartens remain unfilled.

The shortage of staff, driven by waves of retirements and migration, is affecting public and private nurseries alike.

The City of Vienna’s public kindergartens are currently short of 717 specialized staff, while Wiener Kinderfreunde, the largest private nursery provider in the city, has 200 permanent vacancies.

In response to the staffing crisis, both the City of Vienna and private providers are increasingly relying on the support of assistants, who are no longer required to carry out extra tasks such as cleaning.

Additional measures include the deployment of external cleaning staff and the introduction of on-call specialists in areas such as social education, psychology, language support and administration.

“We can implement some measures quickly; others will take some time before they are noticeable at the locations,” said Karin Broukal, head of Vienna’s public kindergartens.

Broukal added that assistants who show potential for training in elementary education will be offered the opportunity to do so, with financial support provided. “We also want to open up a career path for these employees, and this is a great opportunity for them to gain a higher qualification,” Broukal said.