Anticipated Outcomes

Project Activities:

Comprehensive primary and secondary research, including:

• Situational Analysis
• Key informant interviews
• Three expert panel meetings (January, March and May 2009)
  

Reports and Recommendations:

• Draft Situational Analysis
• Draft Labour Market Information Research Agenda
• Portrait of Canada's ECEC Workforce (2009)
• Gathering Labour Market Information on Canada's Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Workforce: Data Collection Methods and Classification Systems
  

  Timeframe: September 2008 - September 2009

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  Understanding and Addressing Workforce Shortages in the ECEC Sector

  An accurate understanding of the workforce shortages facing the ECEC sector is critical in order to address recruitment and retention issues. By examining factors such as the available workforce, creation of new child care spaces, projected birth rates, and parental employment patterns, this project will determine the current shortages facing the sector. This information will be used to identify innovative approaches to address these shortages. In addition to defining, understanding and addressing workforce shortages, this project will look at the possibility of developing a tool to predict future shortages.

  Project Outcomes:

  • Current workforce shortages defined;
  • Impact of current shortages on the sector, labour market engagement, and on the economy documented;
  • Innovative strategies in dealing with staff shortages identified; and
  • Feasibility of developing a tool to predict future shortages explored.

  Project Outputs:

  • Estimates of Workforce Shortages: This report examines the literature on ECEC workforce shortages, describes the technique that is used to estimate workforce shortages in the ECEC sector and estimates the economic costs of current workforce shortages.
    Executive Summary: This document contains a brief plain language summary of the Estimates of Workforce Shortages Report.
    
  • Recruitment and Retention Challenges and Strategies: This report examines recruitment and retention challenges in the ECEC sector from an economic and human resource management perspective.
    Executive Summary: This document contains a brief plain language summary of the Recruitment and Retention Challenges and Strategies Report.
    
  • Literature Review of Socioeconomic Effects and Net Benefits: This report examines the literature on ECEC and its’ impact on children, their parents and society in order to determine the socio-economic implications of workforce shortages in ECEC.
    Executive Summary: This document contains a brief plain language summary of the Literature Review of Socioeconomic Effects and Net Benefits Report.
    
  • Literature Review of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Labour Market: This report summarizes available evidence regarding the factors that influence the demand and supply for ECEC workers.
    Executive Summary: This document contains a brief plain language summary of the Literature Review of the ECEC Labour Market Report.

  Project Completion: September 2009

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  Supporting Employers in the Early Childhood Education and Care Sector

  Project Summary

  Employers are a key target audience for addressing the human resource challenges facing the early childhood workforce. Yet Canada's early childhood sector is diverse and contains a mix of governance models and employment settings, with no consistent national approach. Due to the diversity fof the sector, there is a lack of clear definition and information at the pan-Canadian level about who ECEC employers are;, the range of employers' human resource needs;, and how those needs can best be met. As a result, this project focuses on:

  Improving the understanding of employer governance models in regulated early childhood education and care sector settings;

  • Documenting the human resources (HR) needs of employers in different regulated settings and contexts;
  • Determining employers’ perspectives on how best to address priority HR issues in the sector,  documenting innovative tools or practices that already exist;
  • Identifying and prioritize solutions that could help employers address human resources issues;
  • Determining what tools could be subsequently developed to address prioritized HR issues.

  Project outcomes

  • Range and type of governance/employer models in the ECEC clearly identified and defined by province and territory;
  • Employers' human resource needs defined;
  • Innovative strategies and best practices that already exist are identified; and
  • Recommendations for moving forward on the human resource issues facing employers developed.

  Project outputs

  Main Report: This document provides an in-depth analysis of all findings of the Supporting Employers in ECEC Project,including the results of the literature review,employer survey, key informant interviews, focus groups and related recommendation.

  Executive Summary: This report summarizes key findings and recommendations from the Main Report: Supporting Employers in ECEC Project.

  Provincial/Territorial Mapping of Human Resource Issues: This report identifies the range of governance/employer models,the size/scope of operations,and the associated human resources issues of employers in each province/territory.

  Literature Review: This report provides a full discussion of the key trends and issues affecting human resources in the early childhood education and care sector.

  Employers Models in Canada’s ECEC Sector:  This document contains a series of 14 descriptive articles designed to bring ECEC governance models to life by exploring different programs and models from the employer perspective.

  Preliminary Findings: This document provides a summary of the preliminary project research findings, including the results of the Employer Survey, the literature review, focus groups, and key informant interviews.

  Project completion:  February 2009

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  A Training Strategy for the ECEC Sector in Canada

  Project Summary

  This project focuses on creating a training strategy that will recommend ways to improve the quality of, and standardize approaches to, child care training in Canada. The project responds to the need for a consistent approach to child care training, as identified in the  Working for Change Study, and is a critical step to help provinces and territories meet increasing demands for well-trained staff.

  Project Outcomes

  • Current training approaches and needs in each province and territory clearly defined and documented;
  • Innovative/best practices and gaps in training identified and documented; and
  • Increased awareness of training approaches, innovative/best practices, and gaps in training among sector stakeholders.

  Project Outputs

  • A pan-Canadian training strategy that recommends ways to improve the quality and consistency of ECE training and increase access to, and use of, ECE programs.

  Project Activities - Complete

  • Student Survey
  • Faculty Survey
  • Follow Up Survey (with participants of the 2004 Student Survey)
  • Focus Groups
  • Expert Focus Groups
  • Literature Review and environmental scan
  • Key Informant Interviews
  • Create full-length strategy

  Project Activities - Complete

  Current activities are focussed on outreach and communication, in an effort to share project results. They include:

  • A series of face-to-face information sessions on the project findings, being held in each province and the Yukon, and conference calls with the NWT and Nunavut. The sessions are designed to bring together and inform key stakeholders in each region. (October - December 2007).
  • Targeted mail out of the full length Training Strategy report. (November 2007).
  • Presentation of key project findings at sector conferences and events. (Jan - July 2008).

  Project completion: December 2007

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  Career Promotions & Recruitment Strategy

  Project Summary

  This project focused on creating a Career Promotions and Recruitment Strategy for the early learning and early learning and child care sector. Designed to address the recruitment and retention challenge, the final strategy details ways to attract more people to early childhood education and encourage skills development among the existing workforce

  Project Outcomes

  • Recruitment and retention needs of employers, trainers, national and provincial child care organizations identified and documented;
  • Key challenges in attracting and retaining a skilled early learning and child care workforce identified and documented.
  • Perceptions of how careers in child care are perceived by key influencers and potential target audiences identified and documented;
  • Options for addressing recruitment and retention and skills challenge identified.

  Project Outputs

  A full-length Career Promotions Strategy that:

  • identifies the most appropriate target audiences for promotional activities;
  • includes viable messages about the rewards and benefits of jobs in the sector; and
  • includes an action plan that identifies specific activities designed to promote careers in early childhood education.

  Project Activities - Complete

  • A review of existing ECE career promotions material produced by provincial/territorial governments and sector organizations across the country.
  • Key informant interviews and focus groups with:
    • Employers;
    • Trainers;
    • National and provincial child care organizations;
    • Current and former child care workers;
    • ECE students;
    • Guidance/career/immigrant counselors;
    • Immigrants;
    • Those looking to change careers/re-enter the workforce.

  Project Activities - On-going

  CCHRSC is currently exploring options for moving ahead with the implementation phase of the project. As a result the full-length strategy is not yet available for public release. However, the full-length strategy is being shared with key stakeholders in each province/territory via series of face-to-face meetings and conference calls, with the goal of encouraging dialogue and exploring next steps.

  An Executive Summary of key research findings is available.

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  Occupational Standards For Child Care Administrators (Phase 1 of the Supporting Administration and Management in Child Care)

  Project Summary

  Canada's first set of Occupational Standards for Child Care Administrators were developed over a two-year period and released in August 2006.

  Project Outcomes

  The Occupational Standards are a tool that reflect best practices in the administration of early childhood settings and can be used in a variety of ways:

  • Employers can use the standards to identify key skill sets and job tasks when recruiting, hiring, and creating job descriptions.
  • Educators can use the standards as the foundation for developing curricula and training programs.
  • Child care administrators, directors, and managers can use the standards to identify skills gaps and areas for their own professional development.
  • Sector organizations can use them for developing and evaluating certification and accreditation programs.
  • Governments can use them as a nationally recognized set of best practices to inform the development and delivery of regulations and child care programs and training.

  Project Outputs

  To download your free copy of the Standards, visit our HR Tools and Information page. To order the print version, download the order form.

  Summary Task Chart: Now available!

  Project Activities

  Focus groups with more than 160 administrators and sector stakeholders from every province and territory contributed to the standards? development through regional development and validation workshops.

  Next Steps

  Currently there are few post-secondary programs aimed at early learning and child care administrators in Canada. With the standards now complete, a second phase of the project is slated to begin in summer 2007. That phase will focus on the development of curricula that can be used in training courses and programs for child care administrators.

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  Labour Market Update (2004)
  Working for Change: Canada's Child Care Workforce

  Released in November 2004, this study profiles the child care workforce, the environment they work in and the challenges they face. Its main sections include:

  • Main Report
  • Executive Summary
  • Literature Review
  • Profiles and Case Studies

  Working for Change (2004) follows up on the findings of the 1998 report 'Our Child Care Workforce'. Conducted over a 15-month period, the objectives of the study were to:

  • Identify the changes that had taken place since the 1998 sector study;
  • Assess the impact and implications of these changes on child care recruitment, retention, and recognition; and
  • Provide a forward-looking analysis for the sector to develop a strategy to address human resources needs in the child care sector in Canada

  Drawing on key recommendations from Working for Change (2004), the CCHRSC has developed a labour market strategy designed to guide the long-term work of the organization.

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  Labour Market Strategy (2004)

  Drawing on key recommendations from Working for Change (2004), the strategy was designed to guide the work of the CCHRSC over the next five years. The strategy provides a clear roadmap for building a high-quality child care workforce in Canada, focusing on the following key areas:

  • Sector development, to improve recruitment, retention, wages, benefits and working conditions
  • Research, to increase knowledge of labour market trends, human resource issues and the role of the workforce
  • Communications strategies, to increase awareness of the child care workforce
  • Outreach and partnership development, to create dialogue and consensus among government and policy makers, researchers, and the education and child care sectors

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