Windsor Essex Registered Early Childhood Educators
We Are Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) Video (English and French):
Nurturing Tomorrow's Future... Today!
Windsor-Essex Registered Early Childhood Educators (WERECE) is the name of Windsor-Essex's Workforce Strategy for child care and early years. In Windsor-Essex we are using a multi-pronged approach with the Workforce Strategy to achieve the best possible results for our community.
"The WERECE campaign is focused on empowering, engaging and enhancing the early childhood educator (ECE) workforce across our region. The first five years are critical to the development of a child; as ECEs we nurture their development and growth through guided play and self discovery, giving them the tools they'll need for success in everything they'll do. The campaign serves to highlight that registered ECEs are qualified, creative, dedicated, and in demand." - Dawn Bosco, Manager of Children’s Services
Listen to Dawn Bosco on AM800 CKLW share on the WERECE campaign, promoting the recruitment and retention and the importance of early childhood educators. The goal is to create a high quality child care and early years workforce.
See the Windsor Star article, "Local Early Childhood Educator Recruitment Campaign in full swing."
Workforce Strategy: Key Objectives
The Workforce Strategy is a Ministry of Education initiative that is intended to support the retention and recruitment of a high-quality child care and early years workforce.
Key objectives of this strategy are to:
- Sustain the existing child care and early years workforce to ensure a more stable and high-quality early years and child care system.
- Enhance access to opportunities for the workforce that promote retention and recruitment, including professional development, training, and qualification upgrade programs.
- Grow the number of qualified staff in the early years and child care workforce to increase access to high-quality licensed child care for families.
- Attract and support the development of an increasingly diverse workforce to more effectively reflect the children and families accessing early years and child care programs.
"Ask me! I'm an ECE."
Our WERECE ambassadors are visiting Windsor-Essex secondary schools to share information about the ECE career path and opportunities within the field. Students have the opportunity to "ask an ECE" that will help them decide if this career is right for them.
During the visits, our ambassadors help explain what positions do early childhood educators hold? and where do early childhood educators work?
How to become an ECE?
Pathways to becoming an early childhood educator.
What is an early childhood educator?
Early childhood educators plan, organize and implement programs for children between the ages of infancy to 12 years. ECEs provide care for infants and preschool to school-age children. ECEs lead children in activities to stimulate and develop their intellectual, physical and emotional growth.
Professional Development
For early learning professionals in Windsor-Essex, the City of Windsor offers ongoing professional development opportunities. Professional development is offered to early learning professionals employed in a variety of settings in child care, (centre based, school based or licensed home care); as well as EarlyON Child and Family Centres or agencies that support the growth and development of children are essential to quality early years experiences.
Knowing Our Numbers
Make your voice count!
We are sharing the following message and questionnaire on behalf of Knowing Our Numbers, a collaboration between researchers at the University of Toronto, regional Children’s Services Managers, and the College of ECEs. This is the first province-wide survey of its kind. The findings will provide valuable data to inform the workforce strategies governments committed to as part of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care agreements. The results will be shared publicly.
We are asking those working in licensed centres and home-based child care, EarlyON centres, Aboriginal Head Start, full-day kindergarten, and special needs resource programs to participate.
Your voice and the voice of every ECE across Ontario matters so policymakers can better understand and respond to the professional challenges the workforce faces. If you work as an ECE, a director, licensed home provider, special needs resource teacher, or EarlyON program facilitator, we need to hear from you!
ECEs will be receiving this message through the College of ECEs; we are relying on you to share this email to your non-ECE staff and coworkers.
This confidential and anonymous survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete, and you will then be eligible to enter your name in a draw to win 1 of 5 prizes worth up to $1,000!! The survey closes September 29, 2023, at midnight!
To begin the survey, please click below:
Contact Us:
WERECE Inquiries:
werece@citywindsor.ca
To learn more, please click the links below: