Competences & Standards

The Northern Lights Career Development Center is part of the Community College of Vermont. The Center is the hub of Vermont’s unified system of professional development for early childhood and afterschool professionals.
A primary goal of the professional development system is to maintain and enhance a comprehensive, quality, statewide professional development system that:

• Provides evidence-informed professional development opportunities for the workforce led by skilled instructors, mentors, or coaches;
• Aligns with program and professional standards, requirements, and regulations; and
• Recognizes accomplishments of professionals in the field.

The professional development system aims to be consistent, accessible, and responsive to the needs of early childhood and afterschool professionals from entry to advanced levels. Core knowledge and competencies provide the foundation of Vermont’s professional development system. They strengthen the system by creating common language and expectations for the professionals working with young children.

This book includes the knowledge and competencies and describes their development and uses.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative's Landscape Analysis Series takes a deeper look at key questions left unanswered concerning the global early childhood development workforce:

• What do early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals need to know and do in order to perform effectively?
• How do requisite knowledge and skills vary across contexts?
• What types of training and support do staff receive?
• How is the early childhood workforce recruited, monitored, and evaluated?

The first of these analyses, Strengthening and Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce: Competences and Standards, deep dives into competences and standards. Competences and standards were of particular importance to our research because of their ability to:

1. increase the relevance of training and professional development,
2. enhance the quality of monitoring and mentoring opportunities,
3. support professionalization of the workforce, and
4. support workforce planning efforts.

This research, published in January of 2018, used an extensive review of published and grey literature to yield six key findings related to the ways in which countries have used competences and standards to support early childhood systems globally.

You can find the full Landscape Analysis in English below. You may also download the Executive Summary in English, French and Spanish.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative's Landscape Analysis Series takes a deeper look at key questions left unanswered concerning the global early childhood development workforce:

• What do early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals need to know and do in order to perform effectively?
• How do requisite knowledge and skills vary across contexts?
• What types of training and support do staff receive?
• How is the early childhood workforce recruited, monitored, and evaluated?

The first of these analyses, Strengthening and Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce: Competences and Standards, deep dives into competences and standards. Competences and standards were of particular importance to our research because of their ability to:

1. increase the relevance of training and professional development,
2. enhance the quality of monitoring and mentoring opportunities,
3. support professionalization of the workforce, and
4. support workforce planning efforts.

This research, published in January of 2018, used an extensive review of published and grey literature to yield six key findings related to the ways in which countries have used competences and standards to support early childhood systems globally.

You can find the full Landscape Analysis in English below. You may also download the Executive Summary in English, French and Spanish.

Below you may download one of the 30 Workforce Profiles (country reports) on the current status quo regarding the qualification requirements for early childhood education and care professionals (pedagogues, teachers, educators), the composition of the workforce, the systems of initial professional education and continuing professional development, current reform initiatives and research projects and selected aspects of the working conditions of staff in each of the 30 participating countries.The initial Workforce Profiles in Systems of Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe were provided by mostly long-standing cooperation partners according to a research specification which they received for comment before compilation of the data. The final versions are based on a long period of close collaboration between the editors and the authors. The reports vary in length between approximately 25 pages and 80 pages.SEEPRO-R takes a look at many of the new fundamental reforms including, qualification and competence requirements for early childhood workforce and the structures of professional studies and continuing education. More on the SEEPRO-R project here.

Transforming European ECEC services and Primary schools into professional learning communities: drivers, barriers and ways forward focuses on Professional Learning Communities, within competent early years systems, which help professionals better serve the complex needs of families and their children.The diverse societies in which we live make it impossible to find standardized solutions for all families. New competences like negotiation and reflection must be integrated with additional forms of continued professional development (CPD) that focus on the active and democratic participation of staff.Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are a valuable answer to this complex issue. PLCs are ‘groups of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an on-going, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning-oriented, growth-promoting way’.Competent systems are essential for the creation and maintenance of PLCs. The latter require a multilevel network of competences, structural conditions, engagement, and awareness. This report seeks to:

1. provide a framework to explain the need for PLCs today;
2. offer a clear definition of the essential criteria that define a PLC, with concrete examples from several European countries; and
3. provide four in-depth case studies—from Belgium (Flanders), Croatia, Italy and Slovenia—which illustrate different ways of establishing and sustaining PLCs.

The report includes specific conclusions and recommendations for policy makers in Member States. Please note that the report focuses on services and schools for 0 to 12 years old children. However, the key concepts and conclusions could also be re-adapted for secondary school.

2017 Home Visiting Yearbook is one of the first publications from the National Home Visiting Resource Center. It was developed with the recognition that, as many communities have implemented home visiting models aimed at improving outcomes for children and families, there has not been a comprehensive overview of how home visiting is across the country. This resource aims to inform readers as they make decisions in policy and practice. The following critical questions are addressed: 

Where do home visiting programs operate? 
How many families and children are being served by home visiting, and how many more could benefit? 
Who develops and administers home visiting? 
Who funds home visiting?

This first edition presents the most complete data available on home visiting in the United States.

The Skills Framework is a SkillsFuture initiative developed for the Singapore workforce to promote skills mastery and lifelong learning. Jointly developed by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), and together with employers, industry associations, education and training providers and unions, the Skills Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) provides useful information on:

1. sector and employment opportunities
2. career pathways
3. occupations and job roles
4. existing and emerging skills
5. training programmes for skills upgrading and mastery

With the Skills Framework, individuals are equipped to make informed decisions about career choices, as well as take responsibility for skills upgrading and career planning.

The Framework provides an overview of the 5-must-knows for a fulfilling career in the ECCE sector. These are: 1) Why ECEC quality is important; 2) What it takes to be an inspiring ECEC professional; 3) What’s next for ECEC professionals; 4) Where the opportunities are; and 5) How the government supports ECEC professionals. The Framework also provides an overview of the career pathways in ECEC field and is accompanied by the ECCE Skills Map which details the skills for each of the ECCE occupations. The components within the Skills Map and brief descriptions are as follows: 1) ECCE occupations; 2) skills categories; 3) skills; and 4) training programmes

SkillsFuture

2017

Standards for ECD Parenting Programmes takes a deeper looking into the interventions or services which aim to support parenting interactions, behaviors, knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and practices. The document guides practitioners through a set of standards for parenting programs. Nine standards are presented including:  

• Supporting nurturing care because it contributes to holistic child development;
• Build on a theory of change that leads to the desired results;
• Tailor content to the child's developmental stage;
• Serve vulnerable children and their families;
• Involve all parents and key caregivers engaged in the function of parenting;
• Adapt to context and culture and build upon positive parenting practices;
• Engage trained workforce and service providers;
• Reflect continuous improvements through systematic monitoring and evaluation.

This resource is particularly targeted to low and middle income count ires.

The relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of early childhood care and learning environment attempts to synthesize the empirical evidence on the relationship of teacher qualifications on the quality of early childhood learning environments. The study aims to answer one question:Is there a relationship between the level and type of education of the lead teacher, and the quality of the early childhood learning environment, as measured by the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale and their revised versions?The authors review 48 studies with 82 independent samples from 1980 to 2014, examining the relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of ECEC environment. The results draw upon information from quantitative research data from a number of countries, showing that higher qualifications of teachers are significantly correlated with higher quality ECEC. 

Through Rethinking Credential Requirements in Early Education, New America takes a look into a recent policy change in the District of Columbia, which will require all lead teachers in licensed early childhood centers to hold an associate degree.Emphasizing the importance of ensuring young children have access to competent early educators, the report discusses several options for credentialing this workforce. Discussions of credentialing through a bachelor’s degree, as well as apprenticeship are included in the report.