Building an Effective Early Childhood Education Workforce | 127
Figure 3.1 F our Strategies to Strengthen the ECE Workforce
ATTRACT
Attract high quality candidates to the ECE workforce by enhancing the status of the ECE profession
PREPARE
Equip ECE educators with appropriate and relevant skills, knowledge, dispositions, and competencies
SUPPORT
Provide ongoing support and professional development to protect ECE educators’ well-being
Strengthening the ECE workforce
RETAIN
Ensure educator retention by implementing minimum working conditions and providing conditions that promote job satisfaction
Source: Original figure for this publication. Note: ECE = early childhood education.
Successful attainment of these principles is dependent on broader implementation of systemic supports to underpin work across the four areas. These systemic supports should include a transparent system of award and remuneration opportunities; high-quality, relevant, and supportive incremental training and PD; and effective monitoring and evaluation of structural components of ECE that are fed back to, and support, the workforce for effective delivery of ECE. Although the principles outlined here may be equally applicable across ECE and other education sectors, there are important distinctions in the considerations listed within each principle. These distinctions reflect global consensus, embodied in the concept of “nurturing care” (Black et al. 2017), around the importance in ECE of holistic