Document: Minnesota’s Early Childhood Workforce: Making a Difference in the Early Years – Explore the early childhood workforce – career pathways, professional development, degree programs, funding resources, quotes and stories from the field, and more.
(Available on MDE’s Supporting the Early Care and Education Workforce (mn.gov) page.)
Videos: Hear directly from early childhood workers across Minnesota as they share what inspires them to work with children and families, why they think the workforce is so important, why they love their jobs, and more. English and Spanish subtitles available for all videos.
- Stories from the Field: A Tribal Provider and an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant
- Stories from the Field: An Early Childhood Special Education Teacher and an Early Head Start Teacher
- Stories from the Field: A Family Child Care Provider
- Stories from the Field: A Center-Based Child Care Teacher and a Parent Aware Coach
More to come: 9 shorter videos featuring the same storytellers will be uploaded to YouTube in the next few weeks.
We have added a new section to the Early Learning Services webpages: Supporting the Early Care and Education Workforce
Here you can find a link to the workforce document and:
- A Critical Need: The Importance of the Early Care and Education Workforce– 5/3/23
A designed brief about the need for sustainable investments in recruitment and retention of the early childhood workforce. - The state of Minnesota in partnership with Wilder Research recently completed a 2023 Early Care and Education Workforce Study. This study used a survey and focus groups to gather information about the size and demographics of the early care and education (ECE) workforce and early educators’ education and experience, economic wellbeing, and professional development interests and needs.
- As well as information on MDE grants that support the workforce.