ACC unveils child-care training programs

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This article was published 22/06/2023 (1190 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Assiniboine Community College will use $11.4 million in funding from the provincial and federal governments to create several new training programs for early childhood educators, including one aimed at helping foreign-trained workers earn Canadian credentials.

The funding was announced last week as a component of a larger $30-million announcement that will also benefit four other Manitoba educational institutions.

Of the five beneficiaries, Assiniboine Community College’s portion is the largest share.

A $6-million portion of the funding will also be used to continue a program that reimburses people training to be early childhood educators for up to $5,000 of their tuition per academic year.

There are four main components to the accelerated programming ACC is creating with the funding.

The first is a diploma program in which students will attend classes two days a week while working at a child-care centre to receive mentorship. This will be offered both in Brandon and at a rotating site in a rural community.

Related to that is an online program that is largely similar but will allow students to take their classes remotely.

The third is a brand-new program that will help foreign-trained child-care professionals to earn their Canadian credentials. It will be offered both in-person in Brandon as well as online.

The final element of the project is to offer an accelerated child-care assistant program that will offer student the chance to take courses three weekends a month in both Brandon and two rural sites that will rotate annually.

Speaking to the Sun by phone on Wednesday, ACC dean of health and human services Karen Hargreaves said the funding will allow the college to add 105 early childhood educator seats and 240 child-care assistant seats over the next three years.

“In a normal diploma, you go for two years,” Hargreaves said. “You have your academic year from September to December and then from January to May or June. This will go straight through while they’re working. They can be done in about 18 months.”

In some cases, she said the foreign credentials program can be completed in about six to eight months.

More than 10 years ago, ACC offered a pilot program for foreign-trained workers but not since. This program will give it a permanent presence in Brandon.

Hargreaves said the college has heard from people in Brandon and surrounding areas that they wanted an accelerated program that would allow them to get their credentials without having to complete the full two-year diploma when they already have some education.

If all goes as planned, the new courses will launch in the fall. Depending on how things go, the child care assistant program could be launched sooner.

For the centres partnering with ACC to provide mentorship to trainees, Hargreaves said the program will include funding to help them hire mentors or assign mentors to existing staff and then hire staff to watch the floor while students are being taught.

That’s something that Lorraine McConnell, executive director of Brandon-based centre Children’s Den Inc., said she was hoping the program would incorporate since many facilities like hers are already stretched thin with their currently available resources.

She said she was happy with the funding but was hoping for further support from governments for child-care centres in some other key areas.

When the Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement was first announced in 2025, it set a goal of providing early childhood educators with level two qualifications with a $25 an hour minimum wage.

In the wage grid the province is putting into effect on July 1 this year, early childhood educators with level three qualifications will earn a starting wage of $23.66 per hour, level two qualified workers $22.18 an hour and entry level workers $20.73 an hour.

Staff acting as directors or in supervisory capacities can earn more, depending on their qualifications.

While Children’s Den has received some one-time grants that have allowed it to spend approximately $6,000 on professional development and $17,000 on diversity and inclusion elements, McConnell said it wasn’t enough to make up for seven years of not receiving funding increases from the province.

“My rent in the last two years has gone up,” McConnell said. “Last year, it went up $100 a month and this year, it’s going up $200 a month. Those costs haven’t been made up.”

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