This year will see nearly twice as many graduates from an innovative and controversial education program heading to disadvantaged schools in remote towns.

The Teach for Australia initiative helps non-teaching graduates take a fast track into the classroom, allowing professionals from a range of backgrounds to bring their skills to the teaching environment.

After six weeks of initial training at the University of Melbourne, the fresh graduates – referred to as associates – are sent out to disadvantaged schools to teach students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Associates receive additional mentoring and training for two years after they start teaching.

This year, Teach for Australia will send 43 new teachers out to posts that need them most, with more than half allocated regional or rural schools.

The Victorian Teaching Profession Minister Peter Hall said the government had spent $1.1 million supporting the latest group of associates, almost half of which will teach in STEM subjects; the “high demand areas” of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“These graduates have come from all walks of life and are about to enter one of the most important professions in the world,” Hall said.

Teach for Australia claims on its website that just under two-thirds of its associates have been promoted to school leadership positions.

The program does not have the support of the entire education sector, and has attracted reasonable criticism since its inception.

Critics point to the surprisingly high cost of the fast track program. Statistics show about $216,500 is spent per associate, as opposed to $140,200 in government costs for the typical university pathway.

The Australian Education Union has previously said it did not see how teachers can learn all the necessary skills in just six weeks.

In a recent interview, Teach for Australia’s chief executive officer Melodie Potts defended the level of teacher produced by the scheme.

“This is not a fly-by night or parachute or you know whatever other hyperbole people want to use. This is a rigorous program. They're studying at the same time that they're teaching,” Ms Potts told the ABC.

“I think that anything that gets bright, talented professionals to consider teaching is only a good thing.”