With more new childcare centres coming up in the heartlands, more teachers and educarers will be needed. To help recruit those interested in working with young children aged 2 to 18 months, KLC International Institute (KLCII) participated in a career fair at Waterway Point Mall in Punggol from 4 to 9 July 2017 to reach out to them.
More than 1,000 jobs for principals, supervisors, preschool teachers, assistant teachers and infants careers and other positions were on offer at the fair from 10 participating early childhood service providers such as Skool4kidz and PCF Sparkletots. Alongside the preschools operators were four teacher training institutions, including KLCII, showcasing training programes from certificate to degree levels for those choosing EC education as a career.
The six-day physical event was the launching pad for a new two-month long e-career fair, initiated by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) in partnership with Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), that will run till 15 September.
Visitors to the fair at Waterway Point Mall had the opportunity to suss out potential employers and at the same time pick up employability tips. Career advisors from KLCII were on hand to brief them on training opportunities and development pathways.
The Early Childhood e-career fair initiative is part of the Early Childhood Manpower Plan announced in October 2016 by Minister of Social and Family Development, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, which aims to attract and train about 4,000 more Early Childhood professionals in the next three to four years to support upcoming childcare centres in the north-east area such as Punggol and Sengkang.
Four new large child care centres will begin construction this year as part of the Government’s continued efforts to meet the needs of young families. Together, they will add 2,700 new places in these estates, and are expected to open by mid-2018.