Early Childhood Education

This two-year diploma program prepares students for professional practice in the field of early learning and child care. Through interactive classroom learning and work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences, students will develop skills that will enable them to work in collaboration with families, colleagues, and communities to design, implement, and evaluate inclusive play-based early learning programs. Building on a thorough understanding of child development and principles of responsive practice, students will work in partnership with college-operated child development centers, kindergarten classrooms, licensed early learning and care programs, and community agencies to integrate classroom theory and practice in meaningful and engaging ways.

What You’ll Learn

• Create learning contexts to enable, build, and maintain caring, responsive relationships in partnerships with children, families, and communities that value and respect social, cultural, and linguistic diversity including indigenous peoples’ worldviews and francophone identity.
• Co-create, facilitate, and reflect upon inquiry and play-based early years and child care programs and pedagogical approaches to support children’s learning, holistic development, and well-being following children’s capabilities, interests, ideas, and experiences.
• Co-design and maintain inclusive early learning environments to value and support equitable, accessible, and meaningful learning opportunities for all children, their families, and communities in a range of early years and child care settings.
• Collaborate with children, families, colleagues, agencies and community partners to create, maintain, evaluate, and promote safe and healthy early learning environments to support independence, reasonable risk-taking, and healthy development and well-being.
• Use observation strategies to identify children’s strengths and challenges and to ascertain when children and families might benefit from additional support or community resources.

The January intake offers the opportunity for accelerated completion. The program is delivered in four consecutive semesters.