We are in the middle of a transforming global environment, one that is fiercely competitive and where the future success of our children will depend on individual talent and merit. To be competitive in this new world, it is critical that we develop our children to be proficient in the areas of their personal talent.
It is well known that factors such as communication, stimulation, nurturing, nutrition, and experiences play a key role on optimal brain development for young children. Knowledge and skills in these areas must be learned and applied consistently by primary care givers and child care professionals.
While child care businesses were originally founded to serve the basic ‘nanny’ needs of working parents, the responsibilities of a child care center and child care professionals have gradually increased and now require a higher level of training to serve these needs. This evolution has occurred over time and is due to many studies confirming the critical impact of quality child care on the development of children and their ultimate success as adults.
From a practical stand point, child care centers face the dilemma of balancing tuition with salaries and continued professional development. To save costs, many centers opt for basic on-the-job training and development by Center Directors. This is similar to an experienced executive officer at a hospital being required to train hospital staff in patient care (if the law allowed for this to happen).
This common practice at child care centers places a tremendous burden on Directors who are not expert trainers and whose primary role is one of operations management. It requires Directors to be constantly enrolled in courses, current in best practices, and to have the ability to quickly and effectively transfer this knowledge to employees while assessing the application of their knowledge and skills in the classroom.
It is important for child care centers to assess and focus on their core competencies and to use available software services to increase the quality the center provides to parents. In some functional areas, centers do this well; an example is the use of software tools to manage tuition, record keeping, and to ensure security. Staff development is even more critical and should receive similar attention through the use of expert software services to deploy training.
If our children are to remain competitive globally, we must continue to invest in the development of our young population.
This means focus must be placed on both academic as well as interpersonal skills including the ability to understand different perspectives. As the first point
of contact (along with parents), it is important for child care professionals to role model these skills and be able to communicate well with all stakeholders: children, parents, and administration.
Some states mandate this type of training. Regulatory requirements for training of child care professionals differ considerably from state to state and from country to country. Some states do not have mandated minimum requirements for training, and others require anywhere from 8 to 40 hours of pre-service training annually. Recently, many states have proposed legislation to address this. For example, three states in the USA passed legislation to increase compensation to child care providers with more education and training. At least four states enacted legislation that involved training requirements for child care providers. The State of Florida requires 40 hours of introductory child care training within 15 months of employment.
Many state legislators are now proposing mandatory training of at least 40 hours with the objective of ‘professionalizing’ child care givers and centers. In the State of Texas, there is a recent proposal for 40 hours of required training. This proposal is preceded by a statement comparing training for hairdressers who require 1500 hours of training to only 8 hours of pre-service training required for child care givers.
Motivate your staff to ensure quality of service. For child care businesses to be successful they must build a loyal and committed workforce. This requires an investment in the development of professional skills so they can remain competitive and can look forward to growth (in their current center or a different one). This type of investment promotes openness, mutual trust, and respect between staff and management and ultimately influences parents who can sense this energy at the center.
Read this news article from MSNBC: Recession squeezes day care from both sides
February 10, 2010
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