Conference will consider a range of issues impacting the ECEC profession 

The Early Childhood Voices 2024 (ECV2024) Conference, which takes place Monday 25 to Thursday 28 November 2024, will tackle a range of issues impacting the early childhood education and care (ECEC) profession, foremost of which will be a deep exploration of recent research into future workforce shortages.

The research, captured in the Future of the Early Childhood Education Profession report by Jobs and Skills Australia, describes the current workforce needs and capacity of Australia’s ECEC sector, finding that Australia needs 21,000 more early childhood educators to meet current demands and an additional 18,000 to meet future expectations.

“The report states the ECEC workforce is made up of more than 200,000 workers who are overwhelmingly female, and the nation needs 21,000 more educators to meet current demands and an additional 18,000 to meet future expectations,” Lecturer in Education Dr Belinda Downey from Charles Sturt University notes. 

Additionally, the report notes the profession’s overall regulatory framework has been designed to promote quality education and care, with the National Quality Framework (NQF) providing the workforce with an essential quality standard to assure children’s safety and quality early learning, but that this strict regulation impacts on those working within the sector. 

As Dr Downey said, while the NQF assures quality education and care for children, stakeholders who contributed to the report universally reported workforce strain and retention issues.

“This is exacerbated by high levels of recruitment activity driven by increasing service demand,” she said.

“Correspondingly, this is worsened through educator attrition and the turnover impacts service delivery capability and increases pressure on the remaining educators and the quality of education they can provide.”

“Regulations, while necessary, add to supply pressures, but funding constraints, increasing service demand and a tight labour market are also contributing to current workforce pressures.

“ECEC educators are at a higher risk of burnout than other professions and there are also relatively high rates of work-related injuries in ECEC which can further contribute to worker attrition.”

Discussion of these issues, and more, will be central to the ECV2024 program, with two keynote presentations will focus on the ECEC workforce nationally and internationally.

Dr Tamara Cumming, from Macquarie University, will deliver a presentation titled Embracing systems thinking to open conditions of possibility for the early childhood education workforce, while Dr Elizabeth Shuey of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will deliver Developing and retaining a workforce for high-quality early childhood education and care.

The ECV2024 conference is free to attend and will be held online from Monday 25 to Thursday 28 November. Registrations can be made online at the conference website.

ECV2024 is organised by the Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group as an opportunity to present research in a virtual online space.