Saskatchewan ECE survey reveals the need for a workforce strategy to raise quality in the province's ELCC sector

Excerpted

The Canadian Child Care Federation (CCCF) and the Saskatchewan Leader’s Caucus (SK LC) along with the support of the Saskatchewan Early Childhood Association (SECA) conducted an historic, first time survey of the province’s ELCC workforce and sector. The findings support the call and need for provincial investments and comprehensive policy along with federal investments and leadership for ELCC.

Key findings include: 

• Education is instrumental to supporting quality. The more education—diploma or degree—a person has, the longer they stay in the SK ELCC sector. Along with higher education comes increased earnings, which in turn supports workforce retention.
• Turnover of the workforce is very high and negatively impacts quality with nearly 60 percent of the workforce being hired or replaced within the past year. For children, this continual addition and/or changing of ECEs in ELCC programs can be damaging on their care and development.
• Retirement is on the horizon with 33 percent of the SK ELCC workforce being 45 years and older
• 97 percent of the SK ELCC workforce are women, 9 percent identify as indigenous and 9 percent operate group/family child care programs.