More pro-d for child care staff means better care for young children

Press Release

March 12, 2019

BURNABY – British Columbia families and their children will soon benefit from the latest methods in early years teaching and learning, such as using play-based learning to help children build speech and language skills.

This is part of an investment that will give early childhood educators (ECEs) and other child care providers more professional development (pro-d) training. This is the first investment in pro-d for the child care sector in more than a decade.

The Province is investing $6.3 million into a variety of programs through its three-year, $153-million Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the Government of Canada.

“The first years of life are the building blocks for language, reading and sound development,” said Jean-Yves Duclos, federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development. “That is why I am pleased that the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia are working together to better support early childhood educators who have an extraordinary opportunity to help children in their earliest stages of life.”

Six organizations – the Aboriginal Head Start Association of British Columbia ($500,000), BCcampus ($250,000), BC Family Child Care Association ($750,000), Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC) ($1 million), New Relationship Trust Foundation ($1 million) and Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre ($2.7 million) – are receiving funding to:

expand training in key areas, including leadership, administration, management and ethics, as well as courses targeted specifically at family child care providers;
offer a bursary for existing ECEs to help them with the cost of accessing professional development opportunities;
expand and improve access to online tools and resources, to support child care professionals in rural and remote communities;
create resources, including online learning modules and a dedicated handbook, to help child care providers make their programming more inclusive for Indigenous families; and
improve access to ECE programs for Indigenous peoples through student bursaries and other supports, such as web-based resources and distance learning options.

“The early years are key to a child’s brain development and that is why investing in early learning is so important – for children and for our society as a whole. As a former ECE, I know how much children benefit when their educators have access to training, tools and resources to deliver and enrich those experiences,” said Katrine Conroy, B.C.’s Minister of Children and Family Development. “By supporting ECEs, we are boosting the quality of child care across the province and helping to give even more B.C. kids the best possible start in life.”

Child care professionals around the province will be able to access a mix of face-to-face and online courses, training sessions, handbooks, videos and podcasts. More details about each program will be available through the funded organizations in the coming months.

“Every dollar that goes toward supporting the child care sector is an investment in the future of B.C.’s children,” said Katrina Chen, B.C.’s Minister of State for Child Care. “ECEs teach children to dream big and develop a love of learning from an early age. With this funding, even more ECEs across the province will have access to the supports and resources they need to inspire and nurture B.C. children for many years to come.”

This investment is part of Government’s Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy, which was launched in September 2018. As previously announced, this strategy is offering increased supports for the child care sector, including a $1-per-hour wage enhancement for eligible ECEs, as well as an enhanced bursary for ECE students.

Under Childcare BC, the Province is investing more than $1.3 billion in child care to lay the foundation for a universal child care system over the first four years of the plan. Investments in child care professionals address the Province’s commitment to quality child care in B.C. and complement its goals of working with the sector to help make child care more affordable and accessible for B.C. families.

Investing in child care and early childhood education is a shared priority between government and the BC Green Party caucus, and is part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement.

Quote:

Terry Beech, MP for Burnaby North–Seymour –

“For children across Canada, including here in British Columbia, access to high quality, flexible child care allows their parents the ability to enter the workforce or finish school. This is an important part of our commitment to supporting middle-class Canadians, and those working hard to join it, and ensuring Canadian children get the best possible start in life.”

Quick Facts:

In January 2019, the ministry launched a $1-per-hour wage enhancement for eligible ECEs. As of Feb. 27, 2019, it delivered more than $5 million to child care providers to help enhance ECE wages throughout B.C., with over 7,500 ECEs currently verified for payments.
As part of the Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy, the ministry has expanded the ECE Bursary, which is administered by ECEBC. ECEBC approved more than 1,100 applications for just over $2 million to support students in the fall 2018 semester.

Learn More:

For more information and to read the Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy, visit:
www.gov.bc.ca/childcare/ecestrategy

The ECE bursary is currently available at 32 post-secondaries throughout B.C. For more information and to apply, visit: www.ecebc.ca/programs/student_bursary.html

To learn more about child care in B.C., visit: www.gov.bc.ca/childcare

Childcare BC factsheet: https://news.gov.bc.ca/18430

A backgrounder follows.

$6.3 million to expand professional development opportunities for ECEs

Six organizations are sharing $6.3 million in funding to develop and expand professional development opportunities for child care professionals in B.C. This funding is part of the Province’s Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the Government of Canada.

Aboriginal Head Start Association of British Columbia:

The Aboriginal Head Start Association of BC (AHSABC) is receiving $500,000 to expand the Learn, Observe, Value, Inspire, Transform (LOVIT) Way program, which offers tools to help child care providers to integrate cultural learning into their curriculum.

As part of this expansion, AHSABC will develop a hard copy of the LOVIT Way tool for use in rural and remote communities, develop an online platform to provide access to a digital version of the evaluation tool and resources, and pilot the LOVIT Way resource in child care programs outside of Aboriginal Head Start sites.

For more information, visit: www.ahsabc.com/

BCcampus:

BCcampus is receiving $250,000 to turn the Early Years Professional Development (EYPD) online portal pilot into an ongoing, sustainable resource for the child care workforce to both find professional development (pro-d) and track pro-d hours.

The EYPD Portal is an online repository that offers information about professional development opportunities throughout British Columbia. It helps ECEs find training and updates users when courses are available to take, allows them to set an online reminder for when they need to renew their ECE certificate and also to track how many pro-d hours they have completed.

For more information about the project, visit: https://bccampus.ca/

To access the EYPD Portal, visit: https://earlyyearsbc.ca

BC Family Child Care Association:

The BC Family Child Care Association (BCFCCA) is receiving $750,000 to expand its Good Beginnings training program. This program teaches basic concepts about child development from birth to age 12 years, child guidance, health and safety, nutrition and programming, and can be used toward training requirements for family child care and after-school programs.

As part of this expansion, BCFCCA will increase the number of program facilitators in B.C., increase the number of locations where the program is offered, expand the distance learning program and explore the feasibility of an online platform to increase access for rural/remote providers. The organization will also work with Indigenous organizations to update the curriculum to add culturally based Indigenous components to the training.

For more information, visit: https://bcfcca.ca/

Early Childhood Educators of BC:

The Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC) is receiving $1 million to expand two existing training programs, including Best Choices: The Ethical Journey, which teaches early childhood educators about professional accountability and the ethical behaviour needed when caring for children, and Let’s Talk, which provides ECEs with the tools needed to help prevent child sexual abuse and support any child who may be dealing with this.

As part of this expansion, ECEBC will increase the number of program facilitators and add more training sessions, increasing the number of locations where the program is offered, and develop and test an online platform to allow child care professionals from throughout the province to access these courses remotely. In addition, the organization will be required to improve access to these courses for Indigenous populations.

For more information, visit: www.ecebc.ca

New Relationship Trust Foundation:

The New Relationship Trust Foundation is receiving $1 million to extend its Indigenous Early Childhood Educator Bursary program and support more Indigenous ECE students in their ECE training.

For more information, visit: www.nrtf.ca/

Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre:

The Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre is receiving $1.5 million to develop leadership, administration and management training ($750,000), and peer-to-peer mentorship opportunities ($750,000).

In addition, Westcoast will receive $1.2 million to create a professional development bursary fund to support existing child care providers with the cost of professional development. This will help reduce the financial barriers for child care professionals accessing high-quality training opportunities and improve access to training for child care providers in Indigenous, rural and remote communities.

For more information, visit: www.wstcoast.org/

Contact:

Government Communications and Public Engagement
Ministry of Children and Family Development
250 356-2028

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