Kerri: Ararat is a small of the Grampians.
[On screen text: Kerri, Managing Director, Ararat Early Learning Centre]
Kerri: There are quite a few challenges in regional Victoria for staffing. There's not a lot of staff to share around.
The other challenge is drawing people to Ararat. Ararat City Council has been amazing with their approach and they have been running some bus tours and bringing people up from Ballarat to do a tour of services and also offer accommodation for them to start their life here.
So once we actually have staff and good staff, we really want to retain them. I think it's really around developing a culture where our team feels valued and a part of our team.
When I first heard of the Best Start, Best Life reforms, I went to ECIB (Early Childhood Improvement Branch) and I said, “I'm not going to be able to roll out 30 hours of Pre-Prep with the staff that I currently have. I need to attract staff.”
They informed me of a program that Deakin (University) would be rolling out, an innovative ITE program, which would offer a chance for people with a diploma to learn where they earn and do their bachelor program. So, I reached out to Deakin, and we met online, and yeah, they outlined the program and it was just a no brainer. It was what we needed to do.
Aimee: When I was offered the scholarship, I was over the moon.
[On screen text: Aimee, Early Childhood Teacher (ECT)]
Aimee: The scholarship really helped in the fact that I was able to continue working but not have to work full-time hours. It allowed me to have one day a week, which Kelly and I were able to spend together and study.
Kerri: To contact Deakin (University) and be able to have students that are pre-service teachers and able to do their placements on site was a huge win for us because it means we weren't losing two staff for five weeks at a time to go offsite to do placement.
Kelli-Anne: Having a day to train and study, but also being on site to work was great.
[On screen text: Kelli-Anne, Early Childhood Teacher (ECT)]
Kelli-Anne: 'cause you're actually putting everything you're learning into practice. It's given me more confidence in my knowledge. Going through that academic study has definitely given me more backing on children's development and learning, what works, what doesn't work, what different strategies you can use. Understanding those things and having that knowledge behind you has definitely improved my teaching practice.
Kerri: Early Childhood has a huge scope of pathways that young people can actually follow. They can start off with a Certificate III, a Diploma. They can go onto their Bachelor. They can then go into a 2IC role, a leadership role, and then yeah, they could become a Centre Director one day.
Aimee: One of the best things about getting my qualifications through the pathway was that I was able to stay within my community. So, the wider community of the town and then the community of the centre and the staff that work there. I was familiar with everyone - their routines, their policies, their procedures. It made it less daunting.
Kerri: We've got a pretty good community here in Ararat and The Y, who has four standalone kinders in town and two or three outside of town, they set up a whole professional learning day. So, I took that opportunity to take all of the staff here to that. I felt it was really important for all of my staff to have an opportunity to listen to some really good speakers and a really good opportunity for professional development locally.
Professional development can be so inspiring and really shift the lens of what they might see outside of one service. And I think to attract and retain staff, first and foremost is look after them, especially their wellbeing, and making sure that they're not going to burn out. Creating a culture that values each and every staff member that you have, providing professional development and really good growth opportunities so that they can advance in their career with you.
[End transcript]
Updated