KAMLOOPS – Learning is lifelong, even (or maybe especially) for teachers and others who work with children. This fall, early childhood educators at TRU have joined with a community childcare provider to provide professional development workshops for people who work in pre-schools, private kindergartens, nursery schools, family and group day-care centres and other child care facilities in the Kamloops/Thompson region and in rural areas throughout the Cariboo and Southern Interior.
There are several major advantages to these workshops, which deal with mentoring, leadership and teaching materials, to be offered at various times from September to November, explained workshop co-coordinator and TRU ECE instructor Margaret Patten.
“All the workshops are taught by leaders in early childhood education (ECE) in the province,” said Patten, who, together with two other TRU ECE faculty, Laura Doan and Cindy Piwowar, as well as Marian Hardy of the Cariboo Child Care Society and Vi-Anne Zirnhelt of Children’s Circle Daycare, a Kamloops child-care society, conceived the idea for the project. All three groups had successfully applied for provincial funding, and when successful, pooled their resources and worked together to create three workshop series.
Funding from the BC Ministry of Children & Family Development has made it possible for the workshops to be offered free of charge to all participants. There no registration fee, and supplies and materials are also provided at no charge. An additional bonus is out-of-town participants can get their travel and accommodation paid for under the same funding scheme.
“As an added incentive, child-care staff wishing to take the mentoring workshops can also get funded to hire a replacement educator to cover for them at work while they’re away,”said Patten, explaining that that particular workshop series would be held on six different Tuesday mornings throughout the fall.
The government bureau responsible for ECE licenses recognizes workshop participation in its formal accreditation process. At the conclusion of the workshops, all participants will receive a certificate of participation which can be used to renew their Early Childhood Educator’s license to practice, originally granted after completion of a two-year diploma program and 500 hours of work experience, and up for renewal every five years.
The government, along with ECE professionals, has a strong interest in professional development opportunities for care practitioners for a couple of very good reasons. First, ECE is a rapidly expanding field as many parents are coming to realize the benefits of some form of pre-school education for their children. Second, many families today need some form of supplementary childcare services which are dependable both in continuity and quality
The free workshops offered at TRU this fall are one of a number of options early childhood educators have to progress in their field.
TRU offers a post-diploma certificate that satisfies the requirements of the Community Care Facilities Branch (CCFB) of the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s Services for a Licence to Practice as a Special Needs Educator, and an Infant/Toddler Educator in British Columbia.
Students who successfully complete the Early Childhood Education program can choose to enter the workplace, or ladder into the TRU Child and Youth Care Diploma program. Successful graduates of the Child and Youth Care Diploma may then progress to a Child and Youth Care Degree program offered at several post secondary institutions in British Columbia.
To find out more about TRU ECE programs and professional development opportunities, please contact Margaret Patten at 250-371-5664.
