Excerpts from the Executive Summary:
Many studies, including the child care labour market update study, Working for Change, have documented the recruitment and retention challenges facing Canada's early learning and child care sector. The Career Promotions and Recruitment Strategy project is one part of the multi-pronged response needed to deal with these challenges. As the organization dedicated to addressing sectoral human resource issues, the Child Care Human Resources Sector Council (CCHRSC) recognized the need for a strategy that would identify ways to:
- promote early childhood education as a valuable and viable career option; and
- encourage the pursuit of skills development and enhanced training among the existing workforce.
Blueprint Public Relations was engaged in early 2006 to research and create a strategy to meet those objectives. Research was conducted throughout 2006 in order to:
- identify the most appropriate target audiences for promotional activities;
- develop viable messages about the rewards and benefits of jobs in the sector; and
- create an action plan to promote careers in early childhood education.
This document features highlights of that research and the related recommendations.