Know your passion
Preparing for an early childhood education career should start with some kind of soul searching. Give yourself enough time to think about your strengths as well as weaknesses. Determine what kind of careers you love and what jobs suit you.
Success in early childhood education career requires ample knowledge of child development, creativity, patience, good interpersonal skills and an ability to solve problems.
Pursue your career
To pursue an early childhood education career, there are a lot of ways to start with such as teaching, providing day care or even managing people working in early childhood education centers.
Today’s cyber age provides many career guides, resources and opportunities posted online which you can benefit from. Make your online research and learn from these postings about early childhood education to ascertain if you love to do this or not. These learning can help you identify which further training and skill you need to pursue the career and which job you should eagerly apply for.
Education and training requirements
In some states, pre-school teachers under the public school system may be required to have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or in similar fields. Other states accept either a certificate or a diploma from an accredited training program on early childhood education.
Requirements in the private schools are less strict but many would like to hire those who are degree holders as well.
If you want to start being a teaching assistant, they may not require any degree. In fact, some states are content with high school diplomas though others require some college education, a teaching assistance program certificate or an associate’s degree. Positions which are higher in level like the school principal may require a master’s degree or higher. Thus, it is better to acquire more education as possible. Many begin their education careers with some advanced degrees for higher-level degrees help you become competitive for the attractive jobs.
Daycare centers
Requirements vary by state for those who work or run family daycare homes, group daycare centers or daycare centers. Many states however do require the daycare centers to get facility licensing. The workers of family day care centers are usually not required to have degrees. However, workers in daycare centers maybe required some educational requirements as these centers are sometimes more strict than family day care centers.
Likewise, some states require the directors of the daycare center to have minimum of bachelor’s degree; and sometimes the daycare center owners impose some other requirements other than what are required by the law.
Child Development Associate (CDA) certificate
You may be required to obtain a Child Development Associate certificate if you plan to start your career in early childhood education as a teaching assistant, preschool teacher or daycare worker. The CDA certificate can be earned from a program of early childhood education that is nationally accredited. It is granted on classroom training basis, experience of children and competency evaluation. Most employers are willing to accept the CDA credential for those who seek employment at entry-level daycare or preschool.