Workforce strategies

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.