Building a professional and engaged ECEC workforce

Research TeamAcademics – QUT and CSU

Karen Thorpe Developmental Psychology

Sue Irvine ECEC Policy and Practice

Paula McDonald Management and workforce strategy

Jo Lunn ECEC education and training

Jennifer Sumsion ECEC Education and training

Wendell Cockshaw Workforce wellbeing

Industry Partners

Kate Liley Research director, Goodstart Early Learning

Pam Spall C&K Queensland

Mary Lincoln OECEC, Depart Education and Training and Employment, QLD

Educator

Satisfaction

Turnover

Attachment security

Training

Quality of interaction

Learning

Child

ARC Study : Key Question

What factors enable and impede recruitment, retention, engagement and on-going professional qualification of early years educators, in the context: 1. National and State policies and strategies?

2. Local workplace ecosystems?

National Early Years Workforce Strategy Goal: Raise the quality of ECEC

Recruitment and retention

Improved qualifications

Local Work Eco-systems

Research literature : Staying and Training

Motivations

Reward of working

with children

Belonging to a team

Autonomy and social

justice

Barriers

Pay and conditions

Career progression

Local conditions

Study aims• Identify the personal, professional and workplace mechanisms

associated with staying and training in the EY workforce

• Track occupational trajectories and pathways of EY professional development over time and their association with policy, practice and personal dynamics

• Assess the role of local contexts in predicting staying and training with reference to different workplace conditions and variation across urban, regional and remote locations

• Translate research findings to inform Commonwealth and State government departments about current policies and strategies and provide advice regarding effective strategies to improve engagement, qualifications and workplace conditions for the EY workforce .

Research questions, methods and outcomes

What personal and professional factors are associated with

staying and training

National Survey of ECEC providers and intense case

studies in 14 centres

Overview and identification of key locations and focus

for intervention

What is the role of local work ecosystems on staying and training

Study of staff in 14 centres in three locations with

different work ecosystems

Identification of local and personal variation in

motivation and barriers

What are the impacts of current strategies

Longitudinal tracking of the effects of and

perspectives of ECEC providers

Feedback on appropriate strategies

into the future

Thank you for your support and inputs to this important study