(flickr.com)

Media Contacts

Jen Holmwood

Press Secretary
Deputy Communications Director
Office of the Premier
250 818-4881

Tasha Schollen

Communications Director
Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training
250 889-1121

Backgrounders

Better access to early childhood education training
  • The added ECE seats include full and part-time studies, online learning, and speciality programs in Indigenous community-based delivery, infant and toddler, and special needs.
  • The Province’s Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy was launched on Sept. 5, 2018, and details the “quality pillar” of Childcare BC.
  • In January 2019, the Province launched a $1-per-hour wage enhancement (retroactive to Sept. 1, 2018) for more than 10,250 eligible ECEs working in licensed child care facilities, for a total of more than $13 million. A further $1-per-hour increase comes in April 2020.
  • The strategy also includes an $11.9-million expansion of student bursaries, funded by the Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) agreement with the Government of Canada. In the winter 2019 semester, about $2.8 million helped nearly 1,450 students with the cost of their studies.
  • In March, the Ministry of Children and Family Development announced a $6.3-million investment through ELCC to improve access to professional development opportunities for early care and learning professionals.

Twelve public post-secondary institutions throughout B.C. are adding a total of 314 early childhood education student spaces starting this September.

North:

Northern Lights College: $70,250 for 12 additional ECE student spaces

Lower Mainland:

Capilano University: $437,454 for 20 additional ECE student spaces
Langara College: $65,318 for seven additional ECE student spaces
University of British Columbia: $285,839 for 50 additional ECE student spaces
University of the Fraser Valley: $156,891 for 24 additional ECE student spaces

Thompson-Okanagan:

Nicola Valley Institute of Technology: $74,000 for six ECE additional student spaces
Okanagan College: $185,479 for 20 additional ECE student spaces

Kootenays:

College of the Rockies: $140,338 for 40 additional ECE student spaces
Selkirk College: $210,000 for 24 additional ECE student spaces

Vancouver Island:

Camosun College: $261,737 for 32 additional ECE student spaces
North Island College: $404,556 for 37 additional ECE student spaces
Vancouver Island University: $402,573 for 42 additional ECE student spaces.