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1y Shortage of childhood educators anticipated create 20,000 eariy childhood edu- cator positions when the program is in full swing, many organizations question who will be teaching them with a shortage of early childhood education (ECE) graduates and many experienced workers leaving the field “Anothér reality is over 40 per cent of FEES don’t work in their field Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employ- ees, which is partnering with the coalition to insist the government create a strategic labour force plan to meet employment demands, said schools will find it diflicult to fill 20,000 ECE positions when the province’s schools are only spitting out 2,500 graduates a year. The initiative, developed to send four and fiveâ€"year-olds to a fulldayofschoolfivedaysaweek, was rolled out in a handful of ele~ mentary schools across Ontario this fall and is expected to be in every schoolby2016. BY TERESA LATCHFORD .tlatchford@yrmg.com The province didn’t do its homework when it implemented the full-day learning program, according to the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. LEARNING: Fallout from all-day kindergarten initiative The school boards may not experience the shortage since their FEE positions are attractive, but this will only create havoc in community day cares since they will find it hard to hire needed To make the situation worse, school boards offer higher wages, benefits and a pension plan that will only cause those working in the community sectorto move to more attractive jobs with the schools. Kinark Child and Family Serâ€" vices ECE Shawna Lee agrees there is a shortage and a large gap in wages and benefits since the field is not regulated. “Some ECEs make 50 cents over minimum wage and signifi- cantly more see the public sector day cares as a stepping stone to get into the school board," she said. “It is one of the least-valued but most-needed positions in the community.” anymore either,” he said “We think the full-day pnogram is great, but, by the third year, they aren’t going to have enough BCEs for the class- room or the community sector." Low wages and lack of benefits is forcing qualified ECEs to leave community-based positions in day cares, he added. In York Region, there are day However, he admits it would take new funding to allow ECEs access to a pension plan. For every $1 invested by the government, $2.42 will be returned to the econ- omy, not only because ECE wages would be increased, but more parents would be willing to enter the workforce if there were more qualified stafi able to care for their children, he added. This investment has happened in Manitoba in the last few years She would also like to see an eflort made to attract more stu- dents to the post-secondary ECE courses. Expanding apprenticeship funds for more than just tradition- al trades would increase access to ECE programs rather than forcing people to take night courses while retaining a full-time job to pay the bills, Mr. Hahn said. “The fact is, if money isn’t the issue, more people will be attract- ed to the field," she said. She would like to see the prov- ince create a level playing field with the creation of a labour force strat- egy that would make ECE wages, benefits and access to a pension the same across the board. cares that are already having a hard time filling vacant. positions, she added. “We will continue to work to identify ways to attract more to the profession," he said Right now, the ministry has paired up with the Ministry of Col- leges, Training and Universities as well as the College of Early Child- hood Educators to develop a strat- egy to attract more students to the profession and help others retrain in the ECE field, he added. Nearly 700 have returned to retrainto become an ECEthrough the second career program and there are 5,829 students enrolled in ECE programs, Mr. Wheeler However, it is aware of the need to attract qualified people to the profession during the next five years to ensure the education and community sectors have enough toflllthedemand fortheearlyedu- caters while allowing enough time for institutions to train and retrain them. The Ontario Ministry of Educa- tion is proud of the job opportuni- ties the‘full-day kindergarten pro- gram is expected to create across the province, spokesperson Gary Wheeler said. and seems to be working. he said. “Hoping everything will work out is just not enough: we need a plan." Seneca early childhood educator Pauline Tuck works with. students. According to the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, the province didn’t do its homework when it rolled out all-day kindergarten this fall. STAFF PHOTO/NICK MANYSHYN