Country study

For most children, early childhood education and care (ECEC) provides the first experience of life in a group away from their families. This experience plays a crucial role in children’s learning, development and well-being. The benefits of high-quality ECEC are not restricted to children’s first years of life. However, little is known about this first experience. What do children learn and do in ECEC settings? With which staff do children interact at their centers? Do all children face the same opportunities to enroll in high-quality settings?

The experience of children under age three with early childhood education and care (ECEC) is crucial for their learning, development and well-being and for parents’ return to work. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of ECEC for the youngest children, little is known about this sector. The OECD Starting Strong Teaching and Learning International Survey  (TALIS Starting Strong) is the first international survey that focuses on the ECEC workforce.

The work of early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals is the major driver of the quality of an ECEC system. As evidence accumulates on the strong benefits of investing in early education, countries need effective policies to attract, maintain and retain a highly skilled workforce in the sector.

The goal of the research ‘Bulgaria grows with its children: Building professional competences for early childhood development’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘research on the early years workforce’ and ‘the research’) is to outline the main directions for improvement of the professionalization of the early years workforce on the basis of data – quantitative and qualitative – as well as to formulate recommendations for policy development in this area.

This summary shares the main results and recommendations derived from this research.

This report sheds a light on some of these disparities for the early years workforce. It includes a review of the relevant literature; an analysis of quantitative data covering a large representative sample of workers in England; and 40 interviews with early years practitioners, setting managers and local policy-makers. The most common barriers identified in all three strands of research were pay, work demands, certain demographic characteristics, training and the organisational climate of the early years provider. 

This presentation outlines the Medak Early Childhood Education Initiative and it presents the results of a study that aimed at:  understanding the awareness of Caregivers (AWWs) understanding on importance of ECE; understanding their perception towards ECE in the context of Child Development; planning interventions to improve understanding of AWWs about ECE by the efforts of the Foundation and the ICDS department. The implications for training are presented and discussed.

The early years workforce in England from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) compares conditions and characteristics of childcare workers with those in occupations that are often regarded as career alternatives.

The report highlights several key findings:

The Vision for Specialised Child Protection Services in the Republic of Moldova lays out a common vision on the system of child protection services and includes a variety of specialized services needed in order to form an integrated and coherent system to meet the complex needs of children victims and witnesses of child abuse and neglect.