Country study

Research suggests that, when it comes to early childhood education and care, quality matters most. A growing number of countries are establishing monitoring systems to ensure quality and accountability in these programmes.

This new publication explores how countries can develop and use these systems to enhance service and staff quality for the benefit of child development. It offers an international perspective and concrete examples to help policy makers, monitoring experts and practitioners in the field develop their own monitoring policies and practices.

ECEC professionals’ qualifications and working conditions are inseparably linked to the quality of education and care children receive. This series of reports present why do workforce qualifications, education, training and working conditions matter for better child development. Each of the reports also describe where each of the respective countries (Slovak Republic, Japan and Finland) stand compared to other countries in terms of workforce qualifications, training and working conditions, what are the challenges they face and what strategies have been employed in order to address those challenges.

Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

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.

This document is an integral part of the set of technical references of the Strategy “De Cero A Siempre”, which seeks to guide those who have responsibilities in the Comprehensive Early Childhood Care (AIPI) about the promotion of child development through the lenses of protecting children’s rights. In this sense, these Guidelines are in line with other Guidelines published under the strategy and aims at informing the qualification of all those who work in the field of early childhood.  The document is understood as a qualification of the workforce in the field of education that aims, on the one hand, to broaden, deepen and renew the knowledge previously acquired by people who work -directly or indirectly- with early childhood and on the other hand, to improve early childhood care practices in such a way that they aim at the holistic development of children aged 0 to 6 years. The Guidelines are accompanied by the operative guide and the monitoring and evaluation proposal.

CINDE

2013

The Early Childhood Workforce Index represents the first effort to establish a baseline description of early childhood employment conditions and policies in every state and to track progress on a state-by-state basis to improve early childhood jobs. Providing states with periodic appraisals of their efforts, based on measurable status and policy indicators, is aimed at encouraging states to step up their efforts to address these persistent workforce challenges and at supporting related advocacy efforts. It is our hope that expanded and consistent focus on early childhood jobs will, in turn, generate refined strategies and encourage the incubation and testing of sustainable policies to attend to compensation and other issues that have gone largely unaddressed.

Center for the Study of Child Care Employment

2016

This document focuses upon the situation of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) in Tanzania and describes the current status of Social Welfare Workforce Strengthening for OVC in the country. The report provides an overview of: 1) Tanzania’s social welfare system and how it supports OVC, 2) the social welfare workforce for OVC, 3) the challenges faced by the workforce for OVC, and 4) the efforts to address those challenges. The report concludes with links to two tools to support these efforts: a guide for assessing the public sector workforce and a training manual for workers supporting OVC.

The Early Learning and Childcare workforce (ELC) and Out of School Care (OSC) workforce have long been recognised as diverse and disparate. Within such diverse provision there are major differences in work environments, qualifications, recruitment, retention and staff progression routes.

This Review is informed by:

• Evidence gathered during focus groups and discussions with practitioners and key stakeholder institutions and bodies
• Visits made to schools and ELC and OSC settings
• Information gathered though two online consultations
• Meetings with the Early Years Division and other Government officials
• Consultation with the Core Reference Group of stakeholders

In addition, it has considered, and built upon, previous research, developments and policies both within and beyond Scotland. These provide an evidence base against which comparisons have been made of current Scottish processes and practices related to the workforces.

The purpose of this Review is to identify and make recommendations on how the skills, qualifications and training of staff working within the early learning and childcare and out of school care sectors, from birth to age 14, can contribute to improved outcomes for children, help to reduce social inequality and close the attainment gap, based on the evidence gathered in the course of the Review and wider research evidence.

This Review’s proposals are radical and wide-ranging. They are inter-related and should be seen as an integrated set – and not separately. They build on the many existing strengths of the ELC and OSC
sector within Scotland. They aim to support both a vision for the future and a coherent and manageable means for realising that vision.

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.