Singapore - Enhancing care and development of young children

SINGAPORE: Some 25,000 children aged three years and under are expected to benefit from the Early Years Development Framework introduced on Thursday.

It is a tool to help childcare centres cultivate appropriate care and development practices, and create nurturing environments for young children.

The framework was developed over two years through in-depth consultations with early childhood experts, operators, teachers and parents, as well as a study of the international and local childcare landscape for infants and toddlers.

The framework was one of three initiatives announced at a childcare seminar Thursday morning by the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Chan Chun Sing.

In conjunction with the launch of the framework, MCYS will introduce a new training and certification pathway for professionals who work with young children, also known as educarers.

This will raise the skills level of early years educarers, a specialised field that caters to the unique developmental needs for this age group.

It will also create more career opportunities for individuals who are interested to work with young children.

As part of the new training pathway, MCYS will be introducing new teacher training courses for early years educarers.

By January 2016, all childcare centres will be required to ensure that at least 75 per cent of their educarers attain either the Certificate in Early Years, or the Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education.

As for childcare teachers working with older children aged four to six, the existing training targets for diploma-trained teachers will apply.

To help childcare operators attract and retain talent, a Good Employers' Toolkit is now available.

The toolkit is a one-stop resource guide on matters relating to manpower and human resource issues for childcare centres.

A copy of the toolkit will be made available to all childcare centres in October.

It is also available online at http://www.cdn.gov.sg.

- CNA/cc


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