Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have an over/under on, you know, how realistic that is. But the fact is that we recognize that we need qualified early learning childcare educators, not just people to, you know, watch the kids while they watch TV. We need educators if we really want to give children the best start in life. So there's a number of initiatives taking place. There are early learning and childcare scholarships for people who want to learn. There's a pilot program right now in person. You can do the first year of the diploma online. We're hoping to expand the number of dual credit courses so that the students in high school can graduate high school with credits towards their early learning and childcare diploma. So in addition, this is all before the additional workforce funding from the federal government. So there's a lot of big things that we can do and really are pushing to do. And it goes hand in hand with the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic university. So this is on the forefront of everyone's minds. In addition, I'll point out that it's not just hard to hire qualified staff. It's hard to keep qualified staff because, of course, these aren't government jobs; these are community-led jobs; they're nonprofits. And if you have the right qualifications, you can also teach junior kindergarten, which is a much more lucrative position than being an early childhood educator. So finding the funding to ensure that those educators stay in those positions is also part of the bigger picture that we're working on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
R.J. Simpson on Oral Question 731-19(2): Universal Childcare
In the Legislative Assembly on May 31st, 2021. See this statement in context.
Oral Question 731-19(2): Universal Childcare
Oral Questions
May 31st, 2021
Page 2736
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