Date Published: 13 Dec 2008
The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) sector is getting its own Continuing Education and Training (CET) Centre to raise the professionalism of its workforce and the quality of its service. WDA will be appointing the Regional Training and Resource Centre in Early Childhood Care and Education in Asia (RTRC Asia) as the first CET Centre for the ECCE sector. It is the first private pre-school education training institute to achieve this status.
This was announced today by the Acting Minister for Manpower, Mr Gan Kim Yong during the training institute’s graduation ceremony. Pre-School education professionals looking to upgrade and PMETs looking for a career switch into the preschool education industry can look forward to quality training under the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) framework and better support in the form of course fee grant, absentee payroll and training allowance when they take up training courses with RTRC Asia.
As a CET centre, RTRC Asia will be rolling out programmes leading to various WSQ qualifications ranging from the Advanced Certificate to Specialist Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education and will train more than 1,500 individuals over the next three years. This will help to meet the expected increase in demand for pre-school education professionals as the nation sees a surge in childcare centres and kindergartens over the next five years.
Commenting on RTRC Asia’s appointment as the CET centre for the Early Childhood Care and Education sector, Mr Chan Heng Kee, Chief Executive, Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), said: “The Early Childhood Care and Education is a growing sector that offers employment and career progression opportunities for Singaporeans. RTRC Asia’s appointment as a CET Centre, coupled with the recent launch of the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) will enhance the capability of the sector and also facilitate the entry of mid-career professionals into the industry.”
“As a private training institute, we aim to offer preschool professionals the flexibility and options to pursue their passion in the pre-school education industry at their convenience and zoom in on their interest areas. While we meet the growing needs of our students, we want to assure them that their qualifications and quality of education is well-recognised both within and beyond the industry.”, said Mr Chan Tee Seng, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the NTUC Childcare Group, during the graduation. More than 300 graduates from RTRC Asia received their certificates (ranging from Diploma to Masters certificates) today.
Being a CET Centre, RTRC Asia will also provide value-added services to job seekers and trainees, such as career advisory and placement services to link job seekers and trainees to potential pre-school operators and to recommend appropriate WSQ programmes by working closely with both WDA and E2i.
