18 OctVic Ministers announce boost for early childhood workforce training
It was great to see Minister for Children, Lizzie Blandthorn, and Minister for Skills and TAFE, Gayle Tierney, meeting with Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) staff at Gowrie Victoria’s Carlon North service this morning to announce an investment of more than $6.8 million in eight ECEC training and skills projects across Victoria.
Among those projects was $1.7 million from the Victorian Workforce Training Innovation Fund for ELAA to develop a series of specialised e-learning training modules to help upskill graduate students starting their careers as ECEC educators.
Working in partnership with Gowrie Victoria and The Y Ballarat, our Skilling an Adaptable Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce (SAEW) project will develop a series of thirteen specialised e-learning training modules to support new Certificate III qualified early childhood educators to apply their skills and training in the workplace. The modules are designed to meet the learning and developmental needs of children and the workforce requirements of employers across the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector. In addition, a Community of Practice will be established in early 2024 to support new early childhood educators to complete the e-learning training modules, develop peer networks, and access best practice tools, templates, and other training resource materials.
It was terrific to hear the Ministers acknowledge that we need to grow and develop our Early Childhood Education and Care workforce and that the Victorian government remains committed to that.
Minister Blandthorn noted, “We’re supporting the next generation of early childhood teachers and educators with workforce initiatives, training programs and development opportunities to ensure Victoria’s early education services have the highly skilled professionals they need now and into the future”.
ELAA Interim CEO, Terri Smith, attended the event and took the opportunity to speak to the Ministers about the important work ELAA members do every day.
