The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) 2024 Q1 NQF Snapshot indicated that the percentage of long day care services with staffing waivers decreased from a high of 17.4% in Q3 2023 to 16.1% in Q1 2024. The shortage of early childhood educators continues to persist despite the decline. Since 2022, the rate of services with staffing waivers has remained above 14%.

Why is there a shortage of early childhood educators? 

Recently, this shortage has affected the quality and availability of early childhood education and care in all areas of the country. The following factors have contributed to this problem: 

  1. ECE services are in high demand—There has been an increase in demand for early childhood education and care services. This is due to factors such as higher participation rates in the workforce, especially among mothers, and a growing recognition of the importance of early childhood education. 
  2. Issues related to staff turnover and retention—ECE educators experience high staff turnover, difficulty retaining qualified educators and poor working conditions. All these factors contribute to job dissatisfaction and burnout.
  3. Qualification requirements—The requirement for educators to earn higher qualifications, while necessary for maintaining quality, has posed a barrier to some individuals.
  1. Impact of COVID-19 —As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, training and professional development were disrupted, while educators’ workloads and stress increased. 
  2. Enticing new entrants to the sector—Australian and state governments are attempting to address this challenge. They’re examining funding for education and professional development, incentive programs for educators and initiatives to attract new educators. 
  3. Challenges for the sector—There are broader challenges facing the ECE sector. These include funding constraints and the need to increase wages consistently and sustainably. 

What does the shortage of early childhood educators mean for ECE services? 

Early childhood services face tangible challenges because of the shortage of early childhood educators. Such challenges include maintaining educator-child ratios and reducing enrolment. These challenges will likely persist, but ECE services can take several steps to mitigate them.

  • Recruitment efforts—In order to attract and retain staff, early education services need to enhance their recruitment efforts. They can attempt to achieve this by offering better working conditions, professional development opportunities and competitive salaries.
  • Advocacy and collaboration—Services can try collaborating with government bodies, training organisations and industry associations to advocate for more support and resources. 
  • Flexible working conditions—ECE services can make efforts to increase resources and support. Collaborating with government bodies, training organisations and industry associations is a great start.

QikKids is trying to help services facing a shortage of early childhood educators 

Childcare management platforms like QikKids can play a significant role in helping Australian early education services cope with the shortage of early childhood education (ECE) educators. The full QikKids suite of Office (for admins), Playground (for educators) and Home (for families) all work together seamlessly to save you time.

Educators can perform their daily tasks in a more sustainable way by using robust platforms that meet their needs. Effective tools streamline administrative tasks, improve efficiency and boost communication. The QikKids suite can assist early education services in this challenging environment in several ways.

Save time and reduce workloads by automating tasks 

  • Attendance tracking—With automated attendance tracking, educators spend less time maintaining records manually. Sign-ins/outs from the Home app flow straight to Office.
  • Regulatory compliance—By automating compliance tracking with tools like Playground’s health tracking features, educators and centre directors can easily capture compliance documents, reducing their administrative workload. 
  • Time-saving solutions—In addition to increasing the quality of care, childcare management platforms automate and streamline non-educational tasks. This allows educators to focus on core educational activities. We recently enhanced Posts, allowing educators to start a Post in the moment and return to it later. Posts automatically sync to the cloud, so educators can do this on the same device or another device with ease. 

In addition to reducing the time educators spend on administrative tasks, more efficient, purpose-built technology increases employee satisfaction. Reducing time spent completing these essential administrative tasks can help ECE educators feel more fulfilled in their roles. This can be a contributing factor to retention. Services can improve work conditions and boost job satisfaction by providing educators with the right tools. 

Enhanced communication leads to improved family engagement and satisfaction 

  • Family communication—Platforms like Playground make it easy for educators to communicate seamlessly with their families. This reduces the need for manual updates and telephone calls.
  • Real-time updates—Families who receive real-time updates about their children’s activities and progress are more likely to be engaged and satisfied with their children’s education, thus reducing pressure on educators.
  • Feedback mechanisms—Family concerns can be quickly addressed through easy-to-use feedback systems. Such systems foster positive relationships, thus ensuring continuous improvement for services.

Playground and Home provide multiple means of two-way communication, including Posts, Moments and Messenger. Sharing updates with families via Posts keeps them updated and allows for commenting. Families can share updates with educators via Moments to keep educators abreast of developments at home. The Messenger function streamlines communication between families and educators, reducing the need for phone calls.

We’re here to help 

Our fully integrated childcare management platform can help early education services in Australia cope with the shortage of ECE educators. By reducing admin, you can focus on what matters most—the children. By improving efficiency, enhancing communication and reducing administrative burdens, our platforms enable educators to concentrate more on their primary role—educating and caring for children. Even in the face of staffing shortages, this can contribute to improved outcomes for educators and children alike. 

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by QikKids

  • First published: 12 September 2024

    Written by: QikKids