Tess Matthews was just months from qualifying as a teacher when her marriage broke down.
After separating from her husband, money was tight as she juggled studying and providing for her kids.
A couple of months later, the single mother was required to complete an unpaid six-week practical school placement as part of her studies.
"I was trying to fit it all in like a jigsaw," she said.
"I'd organised for my mum to come and stay. All of these moving parts had to fit together to be able to make that placement work.
"It just wasn't realistic."
Ms Matthews wanted to apply for the Commonwealth parenting payment to help her out financially, but she said she was told the claim would not be processed for months.
It was too long between bills for her to manage, so she dropped out of her course.
"I was going to have to borrow a significant amount of money and use credit cards."
Eight years later, Ms Matthews has remarried but still not finished her degree.
She's also still feeling the bite financially.
Comparing her wage as a teacher's assistant with what she would have earned as a teacher, she estimates the hit to her income as more than $200,000.
"I think about how, in an income sense, I would have been moving up an experience level and I probably would have been a highly-experienced and valued educator that [Australia] desperately needs right now," she said.
"I also think about the sheer amount of HECS debt I have and nothing to show for it.
"Not only do I really not have a way to repay bad debt, it's compounding and growing."
'Falling at the placement hurdle'
Parenting advocates say Ms Matthews's struggle to balance family, study and financial responsibilities is not unique.
A Grattan Institute analysis of university dropout rates completed in 2018 found 70 per cent of part-time students did not finish their qualifications.
More than a third of part-time students aged 25-44 have at least one child younger than 15 — a much higher proportion than full-time students.
The analysis also showed they were more than twice as likely as full-time students to cite work and family responsibilities as reasons they had considered leaving education.
National Council of Single Mothers chief executive Terese Edwards said that was a common theme among mums.
"Women are telling me that they're falling over at the placement hurdle," she said.
"There is no consideration of women who already have a full-time job: sole parenting."
Ms Edwards said Australia now has one million single-parent families.
"85 per cent are headed up by women and too many live in hardship," she said.
Unpaid work requirements high in feminised industries
Federal education department data shows teaching degrees have the highest dropout rates in the country.
But it's not just teaching — many feminised industry qualifications also have huge unpaid work obligations.
A teaching bachelor degree mandates four months of unpaid full-time hours to qualify, nursing five months, and social workers more than six months.
Early education diploma-level qualifications also require six weeks of unpaid placement.
A number of the qualifications, including most teaching courses, do not allow paid work in an equivalent workplace to count as a placement.
Social work degrees do not recognise practical experience with a student’s current employer, but do allow previous work experience to count as part of practical hours in some circumstances.
By contrast, a bachelor degree in male-dominated engineering does count paid work in an equivalent sector.
So, what's the fix?
Advocates say given the critical worker shortages in teaching and many other feminised industries, making study more family-friendly could reap major dividends.
Ms Edwards said those benefits include more workers to fill shortages, getting more women into the workforce and helping to close the gender pay gap.
Education Minister Jason Clare has given in-principle support to ideas such as paying student teachers for certain types of school placements and running some courses more like paid apprenticeships.
The exact shape these policies may take is still being thrashed out with the states and are set to be announced in December.
In a statement, the Department of Education said it acknowledged single parents faced a number of barriers to higher education and was working to address these problems through several initiatives.
These include the Higher Education Partnerships Program, which provides support for under-represented higher education students.
Ms Matthews said allowing greater flexibility, including part-time placements over a longer period, would help other single parents.
"Two days a week over an extended period of time would be much more manageable," she said.
Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said placements gave students invaluable on-the-job training and were crucial to having graduates industry-ready.
However, she said the organisation had advocated for more paid internships and degree apprenticeships in teaching.
"There are a variety of circumstances that can impact a student's ability to complete placements, including parenthood," she said.
"We continue to work with governments and professions on ways to support students to complete their course requirements."
