--- title: Workforce strategies url: https://buildingchildcare.ca/workforce-strategies/ date: 2024-11-14 modified: 2026-05-20 author: Billie Carroll description: "A well-qualified workforce is central to expansion of high quality child care. Tackling recruitment and retention involves layered, interrelated factors." categories: - name: 10-critical-components url: https://buildingchildcare.ca/10-critical-components/ --- # Workforce strategies ## Workforce strategies A well-qualified workforce is central to a high quality child care system and necessary for the expansion needed. Without it, services will not be high quality and expansion will be hampered. The early childhood education profession has been systematically undervalued, making the problems of recruitment and retention of a qualified child care workforce complex and challenging, representing a barrier to implementation of the $10/day plan.  ## Addressing the workforce crisis  A comprehensive workforce strategy must address layered, interrelated factors hindering the recruitment and retention of qualified early childhood educators (ECEs). These include: - Difficult working conditions such as long hours, unpaid overtime, split shifts, inadequate paid leave and paid sick leave, workload, and the requirement to handle complex learning and care needs of children without sufficient and/or ongoing support; - Job insecurity and precarious employment;  - Barriers to unionization, as unionization can improve compensation, working conditions, job security, and job satisfaction. It has proven to be an essential and effective mechanism in other predominantly female sectors such as health care and public education; - Lack of public planning to ensure an adequate supply of qualified ECEs where they are needed;  - Limited access to affordable post-secondary education in early learning and child care (ELCC) and ongoing professional development; - Under-developed or weak human resource capacity and policies, including challenges related to the qualifications and support of program leadership; - Limited occupational mobility; - Systematic devaluing of care work including ELCC work; - Misogyny and racism faced by the largely female ELCC workforce, particularly its racialized members. ## Interlinked ELCC workforce issues **Recruitment and retention** The twin challenges of attracting (recruitment) and keeping (retention) qualified ECEs are long-standing and pervasive. Both – especially retention – are key for maintaining and expanding high quality ELCC as the system grows. **Compensation and benefits** The foremost ELCC workforce issue is that wages are low and benefits are limited. This is a Canada-wide issue, although there is variability by region, auspice, and unionization. Child care staff compensation – which usually comprises 85-90% of a non-profit centre budget – must be paid from public funds if child care is to be affordable for parents and offer decent wages to the workforce. **Education and training** Evidence shows that the main appropriate pre-service education and training for providing high quality ELCC is a post-secondary early childhood education credential. Additionally, ongoing professional development is instrumental in creating and maintaining high quality ELCC services. **Working conditions** Poor working conditions contribute to burnout and exit from the profession for educators working with young children. The conditions include long hours “on the floor,” unpaid overtime, split shifts, lack of support staff for tasks such as cleaning, challenges of handling complex needs of children without sufficient support, lack of prep time for program planning, and lack of paid leave including sick leave. Poor ELCC working conditions are [linked](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/15/05/early-childhood-care-working-conditions-training-and) to low retention, poorer quality for children, insufficient public funding, and inadequate public policy. **Respect and recognition** ECEs have long struggled for respect and recognition of the value of their work. Lack of respect and recognition is manifested in the workforce issues facing ECEs: low wages, precarious employment, inadequate support, absent career ladders, and lack of recognition for further education. Despite ample research showing that early childhood education is not “just babysitting,” these devaluing issues persist as concerns in and of themselves, and they also affect how educators and people around them view the worth of early childhood education work. ![The word ](https://buildingchildcare.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/resources-green.png) ### Recruitment and retention [**A summary of ELCC workforce policies as of December 2023 under the Canada-wide child care system**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/24/04/summary-elcc-workforce-policies-december-2023-under-canada) Child Care Now, report, Apr 2024. Canada [**Understanding and addressing workforce shortages in the ECEC sector: Recruitment and retention challenges and strategies**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/23/10/understanding-and-addressing-workforce-shortages-ecec) Child Care Human Resources Sector Council, report, Sep 2009. Canada [**Shedding new light on staff recruitment and retention challenges in child care**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/05/06/shedding-new-light-staff-recruitment-and-retention-challeng) Child Care Human Resources Sector Council, report, Apr 2005. Canada ### Compensation and benefits [**Position paper on a publicly-funded ELCC salary scale**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/23/10/position-paper-publicly-funded-early-learning-and-child) Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO), report, Oct 2023. Ontario [**You bet we still care! A survey of centre-based early childhood education and care in Canada**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/13/02/you-bet-we-still-care) Child Care Human Resources Sector Council, report, Feb 2013. Canada [**Professional pay for professional work**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/13/09/professional-pay-professional-work) Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO), article, Sep 2013. Ontario [**Working for change: Canada’s child care workforce**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/04/11/working-change-canadas-child-care-workforce) Child Care Human Resources Sector Council, report, Nov 2004. Canada [**Review of the ILO policy guidelines on the promotion of decent work for ECE personnel**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/24/03/review-ilo-policy-guidelines-promotion-decent-work-ece) Education International, report, Mar 2024. International ### Education and training [**People, programs and practices: A training strategy for the early childhood education and care sector in Canada**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/24/11/people-programs-and-practices-training-strategy-early) Child Care Human Resources Sector Council, report, Dec 2007. Location [**Quality by design: What do we know about quality in early learning and child care, and what do we think? A literature review**](https://childcarecanada.org/publications/quality-design/06/01/quality-design-what-do-we-know-about-quality-early-learning-and-ch) Childcare Resource and Research Unit, article, Jan 2006. Canada **[Early childhood education and care: Working conditions and training opportunities](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/14/09/early-childhood-education-and-care-working-conditions-and) ** Eurofound, report, Jan 2014. Europe [**The education and care divide: The role of the early childhood workforce in 15 European countries**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/24/01/education-and-care-divide-role-early-childhood-workforce-15) European Journal of Education, journal article, Nov 2012. Europe ### Working conditions [**Early childhood care: Working conditions, training and quality of services – A systematic review**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/15/05/early-childhood-care-working-conditions-training-and) Eurofound, report, Feb 2015. Europe [**The union advantage in child care: How unionization can help recruitment and retention**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/03/07/union-advantage-child-care-how-unionization-can-help-recrui) Child Care Connections, report, Jul 2003. Canada [**Unionization and quality in early childhood programs**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/03/09/unionization-and-quality-early-childhood-programs) Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), report, Mar 2002. Canada [**Supporting quality early childhood education and care through workforce development and working conditions**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/24/11/supporting-quality-early-childhood-education-and-care) Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), report, Mar 2018. International ### Respect and recognition [**Towards competent systems in early childhood education and care. Implications for policy and practice**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/16/08/towards-competent-systems-early-childhood-education-and) European Journal of Education, journal article, Nov 2012. Europe [**An investment that works for child care**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/24/11/investment-works-child-care) Public Policy Forum, report, Sep 2022. Canada [**The importance of early childhood educators**](https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/24/11/importance-early-childhood-educators) Manitoba Child Care Association (MCCA), video, Nov 2020. Manitoba