EXCERPTS
Recruitment, retention and spaces are the primary concerns for families and child care providers on the Sunshine Coast, says Katrina Chen, provincial Minister of State for Child Care.
“Recruitment and retention is such a struggle here in the Sunshine Coast area,” Chen told Coast Reporter while visiting the Sunshine Coast as part of a three-day province-wide tour for Child Care Month. She also said that stakeholders raised concerns about spaces. “The wait lists are very long, the community is hoping to create more spaces. It’s just with the recruitment and retention struggle they find that how can they go to the next step before they can rest assured that there’s going to be workers?”
The problem was raised by Lenora Joe, shíshálh Nation director of education, culture and recreation, while Chen visited the mem?iman Early Childhood Development Centre. During the tour she told Chen the centre has the capacity for more than double the number of children currently enrolled but a staff shortage is preventing those spaces from being filled. This year Huckleberry Coast Child Care in Gibsons was forced to reduce its hours because of a lack of qualified workers.
Chen said retention is low and that many people leave the sector after a few years. “With this community, that’s something I’ve heard,” she said, before adding that a recruitment and retention strategy is part of the party’s child care plan. The province will be investing $1 billion in early childhood education and care, in addition to $153 million in federal funding over three years through a bilateral Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Framework Agreement.
Chen said currently the province is undertaking a labour market analysis, partnering with Early Childhood Education BC to determine how to support workers in the sector and that $136 million is earmarked to support the workforce. “We’re hoping by the summertime we’ll get the results and we’re hoping to move on it very quickly after that,” Chen said.
Meanwhile, Capilano University’s kál-ax-ay campus in Sechelt will be offering two early childhood care and education courses this fall.