Completed Projects
Completed projects include:
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:
Project Completion: September 2009
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
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
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
_________________________________________________
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.
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.
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:
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.
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
|
