Current Projects

Current projects include:

• Curriculum Development for Child Care Administrators
• Examining the Human Resource Implications of Emerging Issues in ECEC / Communications Strategy Development 
• Labour Market Information Agenda
• Occupational Standards for Early Childhood Educators  
• Pathways to Credentialing in Canada's ECEC Sector

Curriculum Development for Child Care Administrators

The first occupational standards for child care administrators were developed by the CCHRSC in 2006. While many studies have identified the need for enhanced administrator training in the ECEC sector, there is currently little formal training that exists.

The Curriculum Development for Child Care Administrators project focuses on exploring the feasibility of creating a post-diploma certificate program designed for ECEC administrators, managers, and directors.

The project is divided into two phases:

• Survey of sector stakeholders to gather their thoughts on topics including: the integration of education and child care; school-age child caer; family child care; and inclusion. The survey will also assess the human resource implications of each of these topics (November 2009)
• Key informant interviews to gather insight into topics (described above) and evaluate CCHRSC Communication efforts (December 2009)

Timeframe: June 2009 – March 2010

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Labour Market Information Research Agenda

Project Summary

The Labour Market Information Research Agenda project responds to the need for consistent, regularly collected, pan-Canadian data on the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce (as identified in the Working for Change study). Project work focuses on developing a long-term research agenda for the ECEC sector, designed to improve the quality and availability of labour market information on the ECEC workforce. To develop the agenda a panel of experts composed of ECEC researchers, labour market economists, ECEC data experts and government representatives from federal, provincial and municipal jurisdictions was formed. The Expert Panel and research consultant Robert Fairholm, of the Centre for Spatial Economics (C4SE), have been working together since September 2008 to examine how data on the workforce is currently collected and recommend ways to improve the quality and availability of future data and data collection methods.

The Occupational Standards for Early Childhood Educators Project focuses on determining the scope of the core occupation in early childhood education and care and fully documenting all knowledge, skills, and abilities required. Since the first set of Occupational Standards for Child Care Practitioners were developed in 2003 (CCCF), the range of services provided by, and expectations of, the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce have grown. As a result, there is a need to clearly define the scope of the core occupation in ECEC and identify any new/emerging occupations where additional standards should be developed.

The project will occur in four phases:

·       Research and consultation to determine the scope of the core occupation in ECEC, by exploring the full range of services that the ECEC workforce provides (including school age care, infant care, family child care, and inclusive child care)

·       Development of the Occupational Standards for Early Childhood Educators through a series of workshops with those working in the occupation

·       Validation of the Occupational Standards for Early Childhood Educators through a series of consultations with key stakeholders

·       Release of the final Occupational Standards, including the development of promotional tools and delivery of workshops on how to use the standards.

Anticipated Outputs

·         Report defining the core occupation in ECEC and identifying areas for future development

·       Occupational Standards for Early Childhood Educators

·       Supporting material including a series of two-pagers describing the different uses of Occupational Standards

·       Report detailing training gaps for the core occupation in ECEC and identifying any areas where training may need to be expanded.

Anticipated Outcomes

·       Core occupation in ECEC defined and any additional and new or emerging occupations identified

·       Occupational Standards for ECEs developed and widely available

·       Increased understanding of the standard’s applications among key stakeholders and end users

·       Increased access to, and availability of, tools designed to support skills development in the sector’s core occupation

·       A clear understanding of whether training reflects the needs of end users

·       Areas for additional or expanded training for the core occupation in ECE identified

Project Activities - Complete

• Creation of project steering committee
• Selection of project consultant
• Research and consultation to define the scope of the occupation and identify occupational trends, including new and emerging occupations.

Activities included:

• Literature Review;
• Survey of 700 sector stakeholders from across Canada; and
• Key Informant Interviews with individuals who possess a high degree of knowledge of the ECE occupation, including representatives of national and provincial child care organizations; ECEC employers; and post-secondary educators delivering ECEC training
• Occupational Standards development workshops in Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal.

       Project Activities - Underway

·       Development of draft Occupational Standards

Project Activities - Upcoming

·       Occupational Standards validation workshops (Fall 2009)

·       Development of final Occupational Standards (Fall 2009)

·       Release of the Occupational Standards and supporting material (Winter 2009)

·       Training gaps analysis for the core occupation in ECEC (Winter 2009)

Timeframe:  September 2008 – April 2010

Pathways to Credentialing in Canada's ECEC Sector

Project Summary

Currently many provinces or territories have different certification/equivalency/credential recognition practices for early childhood educators, while others have no formal system or process in place. In some cases a credential achieved in one province may not be recognized in another, creating a barrier to entry. This project focuses on documenting current certification/equivalency/credential recognition practices across the country and creating tools to ensure that these practices can be clearly understood from one province or territory to another.

Anticipated Outcomes

Anticipated outcomes include:

·       ECEC certification/equivalency/credential recognition practices within Canada clearly documented and defined;

·       Interesting practices in related areas, including foreign credentialing and prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) documented;

·       Tools including the Essential Skills Profile for ECEs and Occupational Language Assessment for ECEs created to support workforce skills development.

·       Searchable web site and interactive resources created to demonstrate how a credential achieved in one province or territory relates to those in another.

Anticipated Outputs

·       An Essential Skills Profile for the early childhood educator role is developed. Learn more about Essential Skills.

·       An Occupational Language Assessment for the early childhood educator role is developed. Learn more about Occupational Language Assessments.

·       A Pathways to ECEC Credentialing Report that:

·         provides an overview of the systems or approaches in place in each province/territory and the policy that guides them;

·         provides context on areas related to credentialing, including foreign credential recognition (FCR) and prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR)

·         profiles interesting practices in foreign credential recognition (FCR) and prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR)

·         explores the impact of factors like the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)

·       A searchable on-line Guide to ECE Credentialing. Hosted on the CCHRSC web site and updated annually, the Guide will show how a credential achieved in one province relates to a credential achieved in another. Users will be able to search by topic and by region. The occupational tools and reports produced as part of the project will also be featured on the site.

Project Activities – Complete

Essential Skills Profile

·       Selection of Essential Skills consultant (March 2008)

·       A series of interviews with ECEs to inform the development of the Essential Skills Profile (April 2008)

·       A focus group to validate the Essential Skills Profile (May 2008)

·       Creation of final Essential Skills Profile (Fall 2008)

Occupational Language Assessment

• Engage the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks to develop OLA (Feb 2008)
• Identify ECEs to participate in information gathering interviews and observation (April 2009)
• Conduct interviews and observation (June 2009)

Documenting ECEC Credentialing/Equivalency/Credential Recognition Practices

·       Selection the Pathways to Credentialing consultant (August 2008)

·       Literature review (September 2008 – June 2009)

• Face-to-face meetings and consultations with stakeholders involved in credentialing as it relates to the ECE sector (May 2009)
• Creation of draft guide to ECE Credentialing (June 2009)

Project Activities – Underway

·         Additional research and consultation to gather information required for the final Guide to ECEC Credentialing (to be available as a searchable on-line database)

·         Development of draft Pathways to ECEC Credentialing Report

·         Identification of key stakeholders to participate in validation of draft Pathways to ECEC Credentialing Report

Project Activities – Upcoming

·         Develop final Occupational Language Assessment for ECEs (October 2009)

·         Validate final Occupational Language Assessment for ECEs with sector stakeholders (October 2009)

·         Validate Guide to ECE Credentialing and Pathways to ECE Credentialing Project Report with key stakeholders (October – November 2009)

·         Create final Guide to ECE Credentialing and Pathways to ECE Credentialing Project Report (December 2009)

·         Create and test the searchable, on-line version of the Guide to ECE Credentialing (January – February 2010)

·         Release all project findings and launch web site (March 2010)

Timeframe: March 2008 – April 2010

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