It’s a great moment to become a Child Care worker! Child Care services are considered essential services especially now in the Covid 19 economy recovery. The Government is investing a further $1.7 billion investment in childcare and also committing $2 billion to fund preschools giving more parents, especially women higher workforce participation and therefore more childcare workers will be needed.
The sector is large, diverse and growing. Overall children’s education and care services operate under a number of different ownership/management arrangements, including private operators, community and non-profit organisations, state/territory and local governments, and public, independent and private schools.
The sector expects to experience strong growth over the next five years. As a result, child carers are expected to experience the largest surge in jobs, with a forecast of 27,600 jobs growth by 2023. Additionally, other noteworthy strong job growth trends over the next five years will be experienced by education aides (20.8% or 18,800 jobs), child care centre managers (20.9% growth to 16,000 jobs), primary school teachers (9.6% or 16,300 jobs) and secondary school teachers (7.1% or 9,900 jobs).
WHERE TO START?
Firstly you need to get qualified. To start your study journey and be job ready for this fantastic and booming industry, the most common qualification required is:
? CHC30121 – Certificate III In Early Childhood Education And Care
You will be introduced to working in the field of early childhood and provide education and care to children in a range of services. You can help plan and deliver educational programs that focus on supporting children’s wellbeing, learning and development. It is the minimum qualification to gain employment in ACECQA approved early childhood services.
? CHC50121 – Diploma of Early Childhood Education And Care
This qualification reflects the role of early childhood educators who are responsible for designing and implementing curriculum in early childhood education and care services. You may have responsibility for supervision of volunteers or other staff.
CHILD CARE WORKER REQUIREMENTS
In addition to your qualification, you will also need to fulfil the following requirements:
- Police checks
- Flu Shot
- Working with children check
- First aid certificate, updated annually
SALARY AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Most childcare workers are paid hourly, at an average of $23/hr. The typical salary for a full-time childcare worker is $50,000 per year. Pay tends to increase with experience and higher qualifications and jumps significantly when people move into more senior roles. With the qualifications mentioned above you can work in different roles such as:
- Child Care Worker
- Out of School Hours Care Worker
- Family Day Care Educator
- Teaching Aide (Assistant Educator)
- Child Care Centre Managers
SKILLS DESIRED BY THE INDUSTRY
To be successful in this sector is also important to have the skills needs. The Children’s Education and Care IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast suggests the top priority skills for the sector are all soft skills, ranging from teamwork and communication through to stress tolerance and flexibility. The top five identified generic skills are:
- Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) (Foundation skills)
- Learning agility / Information literacy / Intellectual autonomy and adaptability
- Communication / Virtual collaboration / Social intelligence
- Design mindset / Thinking critically / System thinking / Solving problems
- Customer Service / Marketing.
- Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility
At Educare College we not only offer the necessary qualification but also, assist you with sourcing your vocational placement with one of our approved childcare centres.
Sounds interesting?
Enquire now and our team will be in touch soon! info@educare.edu.au or send us one WhatsApp here.
*Source: Australian Industry and Skills Committee.