Apprenticeships Offer a Promising Solution to our Child Care Workforce Shortage
During the pandemic, the early education and child care sector faced a significant workforce shortage and is still rebounding from COVID-era challenges and alarmingly high turnover rates. Nationally, over 100,000 early educators have left the field since the pandemic, with job levels for the child care sector still bouncing back in parts of the country.
In Massachusetts alone, the early education workforce dropped 23.5% during the pandemic. Fortunately, in Massachusetts, the workforce is now back to pre-pandemic levels, with new data from the Berkeley Center for the Study of Child Care Employment showing that Massachusetts experienced a 31.5% increase in 2021. These increases are the result of federal funding, the creation of direct-to-provider operations grant, as well as innovative workforce solutions, including Neighborhood Villages’ Registered Apprenticeship Program.
Still, the child care and early education field faces a major workforce crisis that is compounded by low wages, with the median annual salary for providers at $30,370 per year in 2023, significantly below the national average for all occupations.
Low wages and the resulting workforce exodus have led to classroom closures and increased barriers for families seeking quality child care. This impacts not just educators but also children and families. Children miss out on high-quality early learning experiences, families struggle to find reliable care, and educators face unstable working conditions.
To continue to tackle this crisis, we must focus on three key areas: training, mentorship, and compensation.
Neighborhood Villages is doing just that and leading the way with our Registered Apprenticeship Program, designed to address these critical areas and provide a comprehensive approach to professional development.
Our free pathways offer two tracks: one for teachers working towards their Child Development Associate (CDA) credential and another for current or aspiring child care administrators (Early Childhood Emerging Leaders). Both tracks combine on-the-job training with classroom instruction, instruction in English and Spanish, wage bumps for hours accomplished, stipends for mentors, and industry recognized credentials.
Apprentices in the program are supported by experienced child care educators and administrators, who serve as mentors. These mentors meet regularly with their apprentices to support their learning and help them apply it to their work.
“The mentorship piece of apprenticeships has had an important impact because it has retained very skilled and knowledgeable educators,” said Binal Patel, Chief Program Officer at Neighborhood Villages on the Apprenticeship 2.0 podcast. “We’ve actually seen retention for mentors because now we are giving them a different recognition as the mentors in the room and we’re giving them training and support on how to be that mentor.”
The program also helps equip apprentices with the skills and knowledge that they need to succeed. This includes not only initial training but also opportunities for current educators to advance in their careers. By creating pathways for upward mobility, we can increase retention and build a more experienced workforce.
It provides wage increases for educators as they gain more experience. Rewarding their pursuit of training and growth in the field is crucial, and higher wages and benefits will not only attract new educators, but retain existing ones.
“We want to very intentionally build a stackable program where we have educators that completed our CDA program and went right to the director one, so there's this opportunity for increased wages which is really important in our field for retention,” said Patel.
This year, we gathered together at UMass Boston to celebrate the graduation of our first cohort of 68 apprentices who completed their training. Of these, 36 educators graduated from our apprenticeship program and completed the training requirements towards their CDA credentials, while 32 received their Director certificates. We also welcomed the next class of 100 apprentices who are now working their way through the program.
One of the graduates, Cassandra Antoine, who started with a goal of earning a teaching certificate, shared how the program enabled her to achieve her dreams without having to leave her job. Her dedication and hard work led to a CDA credential, a promotion, and a significant pay raise. “More doors are opening up to me,” she told Early Learning Nation.
Hope Olson, another graduate, found that the program not only enhanced her skills but also boosted her confidence in her role as an educator. After completing her CDA, Olson enrolled in the Emerging Leaders Program, viewing it as a pathway to further professional development and potential leadership roles.
The success of our program has allowed us to be recognized as an ambassador for Early Childhood Registered Apprenticeship programs in Massachusetts, supporting the expansion of similar initiatives statewide. There are now five intermediary programs in Massachusetts and our field is documented as the largest expanded industry this year amongst all of the other non-traditional trades that have grown in apprenticeships.
And the program is garnering national recognition, too. Governor Maura Healey highlighted its success at the recent National Child Care Innovation Summit. “We’ve graduated 68 apprentices and we’ve enrolled 100 more, Neighborhood Villages has, through this initiative, out of our Labor and Workforce Secretariat. It has to be a whole of government approach,” said Healey.
We’re committed to our continued work with the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, the Massachusetts Office of Labor and Workforce Development, and other leaders in our state to pave the way for a national model.
With continued investment and support for our early childhood educators, we have the opportunity to create a workforce that is stronger than ever and delivers high-quality accessible early education and child care to our youngest learners.
