Six educators at Roseberry House Early Learning Centre (ELC) in Maryborough are taking steps to build on their skills and qualifications to become early childhood teachers.
Supported by their service, Jamie-Lee, Chantel, Ashleigh, Brittany, Brooke and Megan are currently undertaking the Graduate Diploma of Early Childhood Teaching at Swinburne University of Technology.
Supporting their learning journey
Roseberry House ELC offers long day care, occasional care and Three-and Four-Year-Old Kindergarten for families living in Central Goldfields Shire.
The service is committed to supporting the career development of its team.
After the educators expressed their interest in upskilling, they embraced the opportunity to pursue their career goals through Swinburne University’s Graduate Diploma as part of the Early Childhood Tertiary Partnerships (ECTP) program.
The Graduate Diploma is one of many tailored courses on offer through ECTP, designed to provide the kinds of supports students need to successfully build their career.
The Swinburne Graduate Diploma of Early Childhood Teaching (an ACECQA accredited AQF 8 qualification) is a program that takes into consideration educators' experience and qualifications and deepens their knowledge of child development, early learning and effective teaching strategies to become early childhood teachers.
Roseberry House ELC is nurturing its educators through their upskilling journey by offering them encouragement, flexibility to balance work and study, and mentorship during assignment and placement periods.
Educator Brooke expressed her appreciation for the team’s support.
‘Having the support of the team here at the service allows us to work together to overcome the hurdles and offer clarification and different perspectives,’ she said.
Looking to the future
Embarking on further study while working full-time has challenges, including travel for face-to-face mentoring, but the educators at Roseberry House ELC remain motivated.
‘I am so excited to look at children’s learning from a different perspective, as the graduate diploma digs deeper into topics such as development and theory on a more extensive level in comparison to what you learn in your Certificate III and Diploma,’ educator Brittany said.
By the end of 2025, Roseberry House ELC aims to have 10 qualified early childhood teachers.
With the commencement of Pre-Prep for priority cohorts in 2026 and the geographic rollout in Central Goldfields from 2027, this will help to strengthen the early childhood education and care workforce in the region and support children’s learning journeys.
Find out more
For more information, visit: Early Childhood Tertiary Partnerships program.
For further information on the financial supports available to study at work in early childhood, contact BUSY At Work by:
- phone: 1300 161 396
- email: EC.Financial.Support@education.vic.gov.au
Updated