High-quality early childhood education begins with a high-quality workforce. Developing a quality workforce is an intensive, ongoing process that involves recruitment, apprenticeship to training, retention, and professional development. This page offers a wide range of frameworks, briefs, webinars, expert presentations, blogs, and other resources about developing, improving, and retaining a quality workforce. It also highlights successful approaches used in states across the country.
Resources
These resources focus on apprenticeship programs and challenging workforce issues.
Salary Scale Playbook
This page has the Salary Scale Playbook: Implementation Guide developed by National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance (NCECQA) along with a video that provides an overview and strategies for implementation.
National ECE Workforce Center
The National Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Center is a joint research and technical assistance center. This center builds on broader efforts of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support the early childhood workforce by identifying effective policies and strategies through research and evaluation, translating lessons from research for practice, and supporting innovations in states and communities through technical assistance.
Early Childhood Teacher Apprenticeships in a Mixed Delivery System Webinar
The early childhood apprenticeship webinar examines different models on how to implement an apprenticeship program within a mixed delivery system.
PDG B-5 TA Center 2020 Annual Meeting - High-Quality Workforce Strand Opening Session
This session reflected on the latest national and state efforts to tackle the most challenging workforce issues facing the field.
Additional Resources
Staff Recruitment and Retention
This research to practice brief highlights strategies to address staff turnover, provides examples of state systems and policies that support the recruitment and retention of a highly qualified workforce.
System Framework Personnel / Workforce Component
This framework identifies key indicators and elements of an effective high-quality ECE special education professional development /workforce system.
Using Early Educator Central in Training and Technical Assistance
This brief describes the Early Educator Central: Pathways to Credentials and Degrees for Infant-Toddler Educators website, which highlights PD resources for infant and toddler ECE professionals.
Developing a Statewide Network of Infant/Toddler Specialists
This guidebook explores the issues that have contributed to the development of infant/toddler specialist networks including the research and context behind this strategy.
Competencies of Infant and Toddler Teachers and Caregivers: A Compendium of Measures
This report provides explains essential competencies for teaching and caring for infants and toddlers that are needed to support children’s optimal development.
Supporting the Infant -Toddler Workforce: A Multi-Pronged Approach Is Urgently Needed
This blog highlights how the recent expansion of the CCDBG funds provides an opportunity to invest in a multi-pronged strategy that supports the teachers of our youngest children.
Early Childhood Workforce: Strategies for Developing, Improving, and Evaluating Higher Education Articulation Agreements
This guidebook explains how articulation work connects to two recommendations in the Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation report.
Early Care and Education Coaching: A Closer Look at Coaching Models in Child Care and Head Start
This brief offers strategies and resources to promote systemic coaching approaches for state, territory, or regional considerations.
Early Childhood Workforce: Registries
This guidebook explains how an early childhood workforce registry functions to allow states, regions, and practitioners to track professional development achievement and plan for future training.
Professional Development System Frameworks
This web page that contains a summary of resources that support defining, building, and sustaining a professional development system framework for a state’s early care and education workforce.
Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators
This position statement describes the professional standards and competencies for early childhood educators to effectively promote the development, learning, and well-being of all young children.
Early Childhood Workforce Qualifications Calculator
This web-based tool that can be used to calculate the funds needed to increase workforce qualifications.