(File photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Ben Tompkins

Government Investments

Carlton Trail College receives funding for 30+ spots in Early Childhood Education training

Aug 27, 2024 | 1:03 PM

Carlton Trail College (CTC) is seeing a recent significant benefit in regard to the Canada-Saskatchewan Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

More than $35 million in funding is coming in over the next two years as an investment toward delivering tuition-free early childhood educator (ECE) training, professional development and student financial support.

For Carlton Trail in particular, they will see 30 available spots for students in their ECE programs this year, all of which will be free. They will then see an additional 15 next year.

“The great part about it is that students don’t have to pay for their tuition or their books, and they get a bit of a training allowance to attend class every day, so it’s a free program for them,” explained CTC Business and Skills Training Manager, Deanna Gaetz.

“With the cost of living increasing, anything that we can do to help our students afford to come to school is a great thing. The other great thing is that our program schedules were made so students could still work part-time, especially in that daycare setting.”

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The training spots will be in Punnichy and Humboldt (15 each) starting in the 2024/25 academic year, with 15 in Wakaw beginning in the 2025/26 academic year.

Punnichy will offer an early childhood education certificate of achievement program, along with Wakaw. A full-time diploma program will be offered in Humboldt.

“There’s a shortage in daycare seats in every corner of the province, and within our region alone, within the last three years, there’s been approximately 300 additional daycare seats added. Communities are getting new daycares, or there are additional seats in existing daycares, so that means there’s an increased need for trained, skilled workers in those settings,” Gaetz added.

“Our mandate is to meet the employment needs of our region, so when we see that there is an increase in seats and an increased need for daycare workers, that’s something that we respond to. We definitely expect that there will be an increase in applicants when students are aware that some of the financial burdens of going to school will be taken away.”

People can be hired at a licensed daycare without training, however, they are limited to the amount of hours they can work. With additional training, there is also the opportunity for additional wages.

Through Carlton Trail, work placement opportunities and requirements are included in the training.

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