Money, love and identity: Initial findings from the National ECEC Workforce Study

The ECEC Workforce Study is a three-year national study funded by the Australian Research Council. The aim of the study is to identify personal, professional and workforce factors that influence the recruitment, retention and engagement of educators in centre-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) services (i.e., long day care and preschool/kindergarten). The study applied a mixed method research design which included a large-scale national survey of educators (n=1200) and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 97 educators working in 13 ECEC centres. Working in a dynamic ECEC policy context, and seeking to strengthen the translation and impact of findings, the research design also included an interactive ECEC Workforce Development Policy Workshop, held on 30 May 2016 at QUT Brisbane. The aims of the policy workshop were three-fold: - (i) to share initial findings from the National ECEC Workforce Study; - (ii) to seek participants' insights to deepen understanding of the emerging themes, and; - (iii) to collaboratively explore policy and practice ideas to grow and sustain a professional ECEC Workforce. The workshop drew together 76 delegates from across Australia, including ECEC policy officers (Commonwealth and State), peak organisations, service operators and leaders, education and training providers (VET and University) and researchers with workforce expertise. The workshop program was purposefully designed to achieve the stated aims and utilised facilitated conversational learning approaches to interrogate and make sense of the initial findings and explore their implications for policy and practice. This report provides participants and other interested parties with a summary of the initial study findings and also draws together key points from conversations throughout the workshop, capturing participants' responses, observations and insights on emerging themes and their implications for ECEC policy and practice