Early Childhood Education Program

Program Coordinator: Ms Judy Daunt

• Bachelor of Education: The Early Years (0-5)
• Bachelor of Education: The Early Years (Honours)

**CHECK OUT OUR POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM**

GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN EARLY YEARS EDUCATION

Bachelor of Education: The Early Years (0-5) 

Overview

The University of Wollongong commenced the Bachelor of Education – The Early Years degree in 2009. It is a four-year specialist early childhood education program of the highest quality ensuring that graduates are well equipped for the increasingly expanding and rewarding role of early childhood professional.

The Bachelor of Education: The Early Years is an exciting new approach to professional preparation in the early childhood sector with a high level of practical community engagement work embedded in the course in addition to the usual professional experience requirements for education students. It also has a strong social justice focus and offers unprecedented input from local and regional indigenous and other services with ongoing community consultations.

The curriculum includes child development, services management, contemporary theories and approaches, learning through play, cultural and social diversity, early intervention, transition to school, leadership and advocacy as well as curriculum design and delivery for a wide variety of settings including rural and remote populations. The University’s commitment to new technologies and innovative teaching and assessment is also integrated into the course.

Length of program

Four years full-time or part-time equivalent.

Program Structure

Find the progression grid here.

Professional Recognition

The Bachelor of Education: The Early Years is accredited by Community Services for all 3 positions under the Child Care Act.

Career Opportunities

Employment outcomes are very positive with an extreme shortage of university qualified teachers for preschools, childcare centres and early intervention services throughout NSW and nationally. In addition, graduates are sought as play therapists in hospitals, managers of supervised access services, in child and family support services and for parent education.

Professional Partners Program

The Professional Partners Program is a mentoring program which compliments the academic program. It provides ongoing support and guidance to students as they develop their skills and experience in the prior to school setting. Extensive practical experience of working with children in the context of their families and communities is essential in learning how theory works in the ‘real world’. We believe the skills and knowledge students learn from children, their families and early childhood staff in ‘real situations’ are crucial to their professional development. This experience allows students to build connections to the profession of early childhood education.  

This is a new program unlike anything else ever offered at University of Wollongong. The ideal is to create an open and collaborative space for developing and sharing knowledge, skills, problems and solutions between students, professionals in the field and academic staff of the University.  It requires a long term and ongoing relationship between students, selected services in the field, and The Early Years staff of the University.  It requires mentoring at all levels, and in reciprocal fashion. That is, centre staff will mentor students, act as peer mentors for each other and in turn be mentored by members of the university staff.  Students will be peer mentors for each other and in some cases for members of the centre staff. In keeping with the sense of reciprocity in this program, centre staff and community will provide mentoring for university staff as well as students, particularly on issues such as Indigenous culture and current issues and concerns for all types of early childhood services in the field.  

Students who have regular and ongoing contact with practical experiences in the field and are supported by committed and passionate professionals in all sorts of early childhood services will then have a better understanding of why and how what they learn at University is important to the world at large. The centres and services who partner with the University of Wollongong in this program know and value what we are doing as much as we know and value what they are doing. We believe that once students are immersed in a community environment and have a support mechanism to enable them to develop self confidence, to accept responsibility for their actions and live with the consequences of decisions made and actions taken, they will emerge from the program better equipped to join the profession and stay in it.

 

Bachelor of Education: The Early Years (Honours) 

The Bachelor of Education: The Early Years (Honours) is embedded in the fourth year of study the Bachelor of Education: The Early Years degree. The program requires the completion of a Thesis in Early Childhood, plus the subject Research Issues in Early Childhood.