Australia

Quality is key in Early Childhood Education in Australia highlights several key policy priorities for limiting quality across the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system. These priorities address gaps in access by focusing on: 

• Pre-service teacher education, especially for Early Childhood Teachers (ECTs) and Diploma-qualified staff
• Pathways to grow pedagogical leaders
• Ongoing embedded and evidence -informed professional learning
• The use of data to track children's developmental, and design appropriate, personalized learning opportunities

This report also takes a look at the many elements of quality in ECEC and their importance.

The early childhood development sector plays an important role in fostering the education, health and care of young children. Early childhood education and care services are currently the subject of significant reforms nationally. These reforms have substantial implications for the associated workforce. This report, the second of three on education and training workforces, focuses on the early childhood development workforce. It follows the Vocational Education and Training workforce report released in May 2011. The third report, on the Schools workforce, is underway and will be completed in April next year.

The Commission’s recommendations and findings seek to support the future development of the early childhood workforce required to underpin the nationally agreed reforms. In particular, guidance is provided on the provision of quality early childhood education and care services to children with additional needs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and children in rural and remote locations.

Early childhood workforce sustainability is an important issue, with implications for children, families and national productivity, as well as for educators themselves. Yet, in many national contexts, workforce challenges continue to undermine efforts to support sustainability.

In this article, we evaluate efforts to address early childhood workforce challenges in the Australian context, where extensive early childhood reforms are underway. We argue that attempts to address workforce challenges in current policy initiatives are limited and may be insufficient for sustaining the early childhood workforce in the long term. Given the critical role that the early childhood workforce plays in Australia’s early childhood reform agenda, we then consider how workforce sustainability could be rethought and other possibilities generated for addressing entrenched workforce challenges. We conclude by arguing that greater attention to the everyday politics of educators’ practice, along with the forces shaping these milieux, may be a way of generating new possibilities for supporting workforce sustainability.

Child Care Staff: Learning and Growing Through Professional Development offers insights and shares innovative practices about the current professional development and support activities currently offered to the Australian early childhood workforce.

Drawing on the views and experience of 684 child care service directors/managers/owner-operators and staff across Australia, this publication aims to answer questions about how professional development impacts children’s outcomes and the measures of effective support services.

Early Years Workforce Strategy is the early childhood education and care workforce strategy for Australia from 2012 through 2016. It sets out a vision agreed upon by Australian governments, which aims to build and support the early childhood education and care profession. The strategy aims to guide governments, as well as the sector as a whole, to: deliver a sustainable, highly qualified and professional workforce; foster a flexible and responsive workforce capable of identifying and delivering services in response to the needs of children and families; and support ECEC staff to work in a more integrated way with the broader early childhood development (ECD) workforce including the range of professionals that work with children and their families across health and family services. The following five priority areas have been identified as essential components of achieving a sustainable and highly qualified ECEC workforce: 1) a professional workforce; 2) a growing workforce; 3) a qualified workforce; 4) a responsive workforce; and 5) a collaborative workforce.

The strategy which builds on 2009’s Investing in the Early Years –A National Early Childhood Development Strategy, reflects a commitment by governments to address the immediate priorities for the ECEC workforce, and at the same time working towards a long-term broader strategy for the workforce with a focus on supporting more integrated ways of working across the ECD sector.

Commissioned By:
Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood

2012

This up to date text is suitable for students on all early years and early childhood courses as well as interested practitioners. It looks at the current structure of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce in different countries, each of which represents a distinct philosophical tradition, tracing what has shaped this structure and examining how politics and policy have moulded the workforce over time. Each chapter analyses historical, philosophical and political developments in the respective country and looks at key theorists, the concepts of childhood that have shaped the workforce and the pedagogical approach. The unique aspects of each country are highlighted along with a consideration of what the future might hold for the workforce. Students and practitioners will achieve a more critical understanding of current practice and the beliefs which underpin particular pedagogical approaches while being encouraged to question their own values and practice.

The purpose of this review is to:

• review the progress of the ECEC sector towards meeting the qualification requirements of the NQF that came into effect from 1 January 2014, particularly in relation to Early Childhood Teachers (ECTs) and rural and remote workforces
• identify areas which require further attention so additional support can be provided.

According to the report, although progress has been achieved, there are still challenged, across seven themes, that need to be addressed in order to further improve the ability of the sector to meet the NQF qualification requirements. Those challenges evolve around the following topics: 1) challenges in gaining qualifications: New entrants to the ECEC sector; 2) challenges in gaining qualifications: Up-skilling the existing workforce; 3) workforce challenges for ECEC services (including attracting and retaining staff); and 4) challenges for interpretation and application of NQF qualification requirements.