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Courses and Careers in Early Childhood Education

by StudyMalaysia.com on January 20, 2018 | Top Stories, Career Guide

Courses and Careers in Early Childhood Education - StudyMalaysia.com

Do you enjoy helping children learn or discover something that excites them? Are you passionate about finding new ways to help children learn better?


Careers in early childhood education

Early childhood education is a diverse field that involves the care and education of children from birth up until the age of about 8 years. If you are interested in child development particularly how a child’s formative period is developed emotionally, physically and intellectually, you might find a rewarding career opportunities in early childhood education. Here are some occupations you can explore—the occupations are divided into direct service careers, supportive service careers and related careers.

Direct service careers Brief job description
Family child care owner or operator
  • Creates a developmentally appropriate learning environment
  • Plans experiences to promote nutrition and healthy eating practices
  • Develops and maintains positive communication with families
  • Develops a business plan that includes financial planning, marketing of business, and program policies and procedures
  • Creates and maintains safe indoor and outdoor areas and promotes safe practices for children
  • Improves teaching and learning through professional work habits
Family child care helper or assistant
  • Duties are similar to the owner/operator
  • Assists the owner/operator
Child care centre administrator or director
  • Recruits, screens, trains, supervises, and evaluates staff and volunteers
  • Ensures adherence to federal and state employment laws and regulations
  • Manages all programme resources effectively
  • Collaborates with families in their child’s learning, development, and well-being
  • Develops a fiscal business plan to reflect the programme’s mission and philosophy
Child care worker/assistant
  • Use effective communication (listening, reading, writing) skills for the early care and education environment
  • Understand and use a variety of tools used to record and communicate critical child information
  • Understand inclusionary practices based on national standards and best practices in early childhood education and school age programmes
  • Understand the responsibilities of identifying and reporting incidents of child abuse and neglect
Teacher
  • Recognises that each child learns and develops through experience and active participation
  • Creates a developmentally appropriate learning environment
  • Promotes safe practices for children
  • Models healthy lifestyle practices
  • Plans experiences to promote nutrition and healthy eating practices
  • Develops and maintains positive communication with families
  • Improves teaching and learning through professional work habits
  • Implements principles of teamwork in interactions with peers, support staff, volunteers, supervisors, and other professionals
Assistant teacher
  • Is aware of basic benchmarks for growth and development
  • Assists teacher with the collection of information about each child’s growth, development, and learning
  • Works effectively with peers, support staff, volunteers, supervisors, and other professionals
Substitute teacher
  • Performs to many of the same duties of a teacher or assistant teacher
  • On call as a temporary replacement for teacher or assistant teacher
Supportive service careers Brief job description
Early childhood specialist
  • Promotes continuous, collaborative learning
  • Promotes advocacy for children and the profession
  • Provides resources to child care professionals for professional growth
  • References best practice to help child care professionals enhance quality
  • Builds collaborative relationships with community partners and early education programmes
  • Recruits prospective child care professionals
  • Participates in a professional association
Child care referral counsellor
  • Helps families learn about the various types of child care
  • Shares information with families about the impact of learning activities on development
  • Collaborates and plans with other professionals and community partners to meet the needs of children and families
Professional development coordinator
  • Advocates for best practices in child and youth development to families, administrators, colleagues, and the community
  • Engages in continuous, collaborative professional development for the benefit of self and others
  • Develops and implements a professional development plan for an agency
  • Creates professional development opportunities for others
  • Evaluates and secures resources for ongoing professional development within community
Professional development trainer
  • Encourages and empowers others to engage in and continue early childhood education
  • Utilises techniques to promote transfer of learning for classroom staff
  • Understands adult learning and effective teaching strategies
  • Serves as an expert in subjects being taught
  • Integrates information on growth, development, learning patterns, diverse abilities, multiple intelligences and shows how to apply it to early childhood
  • Promotes continuous, collaborative learning
Technical assistance specialist/coach
  • Supports early childhood programs in the development of goals
  • Provides support to early childhood professionals that encourages ongoing self-reflection, self-assessment, and problem-solving strategies
  • Provides support to early childhood programmes to integrate information on growth and development, learning patterns, diverse abilities, and multiple intelligences and applies to practice
  • Identifies successes and strengths of programmes to help promote best practice
Consultant
  • Recognises the individual needs of all learners and realises variations in children’s strengths, needs, prior knowledge and experiences, learning styles, and multiple intelligences impact learning
  • Demonstrates effective organisational and time management skills
  • Explains current theory, research, and policy on programme planning and evaluation to peers, families, the public through articles, parent meetings, and conference presentations
  • Understands effective teaching strategies
  • Works effectively with peers, support staff, volunteers, supervisors, and other professionals
Project coordinator
  • Demonstrates the ability to strengthen the programme’s team of peers, support staff, volunteers, supervisors, and other professionals
  • Implements principles of teamwork in interactions with peers, support staff, volunteers, supervisors, and other professionals
  • Advocates for programmes and policies that impact the overall quality of services for children and families
Programme director
  • Recruits, screens, trains, supervises, and evaluates staff and volunteers
  • Establishes an organizational culture where staff and volunteers feel valued, competent, and safe
  • Advocates for programmes and policies that impact the overall quality of services for children and families
  • Develops a business plan to reflect the programme’s mission, philosophy, and financial position
Family specialist/counsellor
  • Develops partnerships with families to support children’s learning, development, and well-being
  • Shares information with families about the impact of learning activities on development
  • Provides early childhood information and resources to families
  • Connects families with parenting materials, websites, support groups, and community resources specific to their needs
  • Collaborates with service providers and other family specialists/counsellors in the community to ensure that families get needed services
Early intervention specialist
  • Knowledge of services including: speech, occupational and physical therapies, audiology, special instruction, and family training
  • Knowledgeable about environments and learning experiences that value, affirm, and respect each child’s diverse needs and abilities
Related careers Brief job description
Researcher/Analyst
  • Conducts research and evaluates services that impact the outcomes for young children and families
  • Uses knowledge of practices and policies to shape the early childhood profession
  • Analyse studies to show the potential impact on children and families
  • Evaluates impact of previous and proposed research
Early childhood programme officer
  • Works with other staff, consultants and funders to determine specific priorities and outcomes desired from grant and/or special funding initiatives
  • Knows, understands, and explains the multiple influences on development and learning
  • Provides assistance to organisations and individuals requesting information or advice about resource development, program development and/or non-profit management issues
Social worker
  • Counsel individuals, groups, families, or communities
  • Serve as liaisons between students, homes, schools, family services, child guidance clinics, courts, protective services, doctors, and other contacts to help children who face problems, such as disabilities, abuse, or poverty
  • Administer welfare programmes
Sales representative
  • Create, market, and sell merchandise used by the educators and caregivers of young children which includes children’s literature, toys, nutritional products, art supplies, etc.
  • Promote products at developmental conferences, events, online, and in stores

Courses in early childhood education

When considering a career in early childhood care and education, do find out the minimum qualifications required by the industry and regulatory bodies. The courses offered in Malaysia include:

Five signs you have what it takes to be an early childhood educator

You’re good at building relationships. As an early childhood educator, you’ll form relationships with the children (and their families) as you guide and nurture them.

You’re not afraid of cleaning up. Let’s face it… kids often make a mess faster than you can clean it. From spilt food, paint and glitter to snot and other bodily fluids, dealing with this will be part of your daily routine.

You’re enthusiastic about sharing knowledge and new discoveries. You love learning and finding ways to help children learn. You like guiding them in their quest for knowledge.

You’re patient and have a good communication skills. Kids have short attention spans and very little self-control—in short, you need a huge amount of patience to take the ups and downs of each day. You also need effective skills to communicate with the children and their parents.

You’re creative and flexible. When planning lessons, you need to be creative to be able to engage the children in their learning. You also need to be flexible enough to accommodate the individual learning styles of the children and change plans and ideas when needed.


ALFA College

ALFA College

Campus: Subang Jaya, Selangor

ALFA College provides a unique, close-knit learning environment for its students. The quality of its lecturers and a teaching philosophy which places a premium on practice-based training are two big reasons why families choose ALFA. Lecturers here are experienced, industry professionals concerned with the welfare of the individuals under their tutelage. The academic curriculum consists of industry-relevant courses with a focus on professional readiness. 70% of these courses involve practical, hands-on content. Course work is designed to teach industry best practices which provides ALFA graduates with a considerable advantage as they enter the job market.

The College encourages students to explore new approaches and independent thinking while fostering a mind-set geared towards problem solving and practical solutions. ALFA students are empowered to clearly articulate unique viewpoints while working in a team-based context as preparation for life in the professional arena. As a result, ALFA graduates are able to produce industry-relevant solutions while performing at optimal levels either independently or in team-based settings. In 2012 ALFA College was presented the NAPEI Award for Education Excellence and ‘Tier 5 Excellent’ rating by MyQuest for 2012/2013.

Programmes:

City University College of Science and Technology

City University College of Science and Technology

Campus: Petaling Jaya, Selangor

City University College of Science & Technology (City UC) is one of the oldest private institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. It was first established in 1984 as PJ Community College (PJCC) in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Even as a small college in the early 1980s, City UC has always been committed to its mission to produce quality graduates with strong employability attributes, good communication skills, great intellectual curiosity for innovation and a keen interest in life-long learning. One unique feature of City UC is that it also offers "credit transfers" arrangement with its overseas university partners so that it is possible for students in selected programmes to receive double degrees; one from City UC and the other from an overseas university.

Programmes:

HELP University

HELP University

Campuses: Damansara Heights, Subang 2, Fraser Business Park

Founded in 1986 to provide affordable quality educational opportunities for Malaysians, HELP University has become a leading institution of higher learning in Malaysia with a firmly established international reputation. It offers a wide and diverse range of programmes covering business, law, entrepreneurship, management, economics, IT, psychology, communication, social sciences and the humanities at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

HELP’s vision is to help everyone succeed in life and live a life of significance through education. Its mission is to be a university with a strong culture of quality and leadership that focuses on sound academic standards, continuous improvement, and talent development of students and staff. It will also offer a learning experience that enhances career development, lifetime values and personal fulfillment. One of HELP’s missions is to share its success with the stakeholders and community it serves.

Programmes:

Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University College

Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University College

Corporate Office: Menara Tun Ismail Mohamed Ali, Kuala Lumpur
Campuses: Metro Campus, KL; Putra Campus (Wisma Sachdev), KL; & Putra Campus (Wisma Havela Thakardas), KL

Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University College (KLMUC) is part of Cosmopoint Group, a household name in the local education industry with more than 24 years of experience. Programmes are designed to meet industry needs where syllabuses are uniquely structured to incorporate practical elements through student activities depending on the discipline. Students learn practical skills that are immediately applicable in the workforce. KLMUC students also benefit from strong industry links and affordable fees.

KLMUC has a special unit called Careers and Partners that assists students in preparing them for the real world including the development of their CV, interview skills and English language seminars. In addition, the unit also conducts Graduate Employability Seminars throughout the year.

Programmes:

Management & Science University

Management & Science University

Campus: Shah Alam, Selangor

As a leading teaching and learning university, MSU gives priority to quality education and the importance of creative teaching methodologies towards producing quality graduates. Besides incorporating international exposure in the students’ learning experience, extensive industrial training components and personal enrichment competency are also blended into the programme of study to ensure the graduates’ employability.

All programmes offered are either approved or/ accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and others professional bodies such as the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), the Nursing Board Malaysia (NBM), and the Malaysian Optometry Council (MOC).

The MSU Global Mobility and Global Leadership Programmes are initiatives of the university towards empowering students through international exposure activities. This exposure serves to complete the students’ development into competent and employable graduates.

Programmes:

Open University Malaysia

Open University Malaysia

Campus: Kuala Lumpur

Programmes offered at OUM cover a wide range of disciplines and are all accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). Many of the programmes are also offered by international universities to their students – further proof of the OUM quality.

The advantages of choosing OUM courses are:

  • choice and flexibility
  • affordable fees
  • the very best learning resources
  • myINSPIRE: a user-friendly learning system
  • modern and up-to-date learning centre in every state
  • flexible entry
  • academic excellence
  • student-centred approach
  • extensive collection in our digital library
Programmes:

Quest International University Perak

Quest International University Perak

Campus: Ipoh, Perak

QIUP is a private and comprehensive research-led university. At QIUP, we believe that planting the seeds of curiosity in students from the beginning will inspire them to make ‘knowledge-seeking’ their quest in life.

To engage our students and instill in them the hunger of knowledge, we believe in blending theory and practice in education. We ensure that our programmes are industry-relevant using motivational teaching methods which are highly effective. QIUP graduates will emerge from the university as florets leaving the plant, ready for the job market and will continue their quest to seek and learn.

Top 5 reasons to choose QIUP:

  • International standards
  • Affordable programmes
  • Conducive learning environment
  • Character building (independent learning, creativity, communication skills, team spirit, respect for diversity and leadership)
  • “Job-ready” students
Programmes:

SEGi University & Colleges

SEGi University & Colleges

Main campus: Kota Damansara, Selangor
Other campuses: Subang Jaya, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Sarawak

If you aspire to redefine the benchmarks of excellence in your field, we’d like to embrace that passion with you. Together, we can build mutual trust – what we hold dearly for every SEGian. We enable promising minds with a holistic learning experience and constantly rediscover new ways to make a difference in your lives. Our unique attributes of quality, passion, vibrancy and care are the key and guiding principles that pave the way for your growth and ours alike.

We are proud to host some of the best graduates from diverse backgrounds with concrete foundations for nearly 40 years. The by-products of our coaching have since become leaders of industries. Today, the Group boasts an impressive number of young learners; as many as 27,500, in five major campuses located in the Klang Valley, Penang and Sarawak.

Programmes:

UNITAR International University

UNITAR International University

Campus: Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Established in 1997 in Malaysia, UNITAR International University (UNITAR) is a reputable, private, higher-learning institution that can provide a platform for your educational success. UNITAR's Main Campus in Kelana Jaya collaborates with 10 Independent Regional Centres (IRC) throughout the country to assist a combined population of more than 9,000 students nationwide in 60 academic programmes.

The University provides affordable educational programmes at foundation, diploma, bachelor's, master's and doctorate levels to expand the reach of high-quality learning through our conventional and distance learning programmes. Dedicated to setting the standard in innovative social sciences universities, UNITAR offers a diverse range of programmes covering Business, Technology and Accounting, Education and Communications, Culinary and Tourism, Architecture and Design, Early Childhood Studies, and more. Guided by its vision from the past, UNITAR continues to inspire all into the future with an innovative approach of the 21st century teaching and learning called UNITAR Education Core ("UNIEC").

Programmes:

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

Campuses: Kampar and Sungai Long

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) was established under the UTAR Education Foundation as a not-for-profit organisation and launched on 13 August 2002. UTAR currently offers more than 110 academic programmes spreading across nine faculties, three centres and three institutes. The programmes offered range from foundation studies to PhD in the fields of Accountancy, Actuarial Science, Agriculture, Arts, Business and Economics, Creative Industries and Design, Engineering and Built Environment, Information and Communication Technology, Life and Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Process Management, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Social Science and Education.

To date, the university has established formal collaborations to facilitate international exchanges, research and training with over 180 institutions/ and organisation consisting of 117 foreign and local institutions of higher learning and 68 local and foreign industry partners.

Programmes:

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