Becoming a Child Care Professional in Toronto

  • Added:
    Feb 12, 2014
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    1776
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Becoming a Child Care Professional in Toronto Photo by Jason White

Before you consider a career in child care, it's important to gather an in-depth understanding of their job duties and every work life. This is because child care in Canada is not baby sitting or just taking care of infants, toddlers, preschoolers or school-age children in the absence of their parents.

The job responsibilities include much more than this. Child care professionals in Canada work with a well established nursery schools, child care centres and drop-in centres, shelters for women, and children and parent resources centres. They are responsible for

  • Identifying individual needs of each child
  • Keeping a record of their daily observations
  • Communicating with children and developing a friendly relationship with them
  • Planning and developing a curriculum based on their individual needs
  • Implementing and monitoring these curriculums
  • Overseeing physical facilities at the child care centre
  • Ensuring complete comfort of children
  • Administrating their medications if required
  • Monitoring their play activities
  • Serving them food
  • Offering multiple opportunities to them that support their physical, mental, social and cognitive growth
  • Helping them express their feelings

The major responsibility of child care professionals is to make children feel supported, encouraged and loved, while ensuring their physical and emotional well-being and safety.

Everyday Work Life

The child care professionals are expected to remain attentive, energetic and motivated throughout the day. As they have to take care of children and support their physical, emotional and social development, they need to be completely engaged in their work. Besides this, they need to act friendly, no matter how stressful, tiring or irritating their work may seem.

The professionals are also expected to act in a manner consistent with principles of equity, fairness and diversity to support the development of children. They are supposed to provide highest level of quality care to children at all times. The job of a child care professional is very challenging and extremely demanding.

Educational Prerequisites

Only those students who really love being with children and taking care of them should consider entering this profession. However, this is not the only requirement. The minimum requirement to become a child care professional is to having a formal, post-secondary education in early childhood studies.

Centennial College's two-year post-secondary ECE program prepares you to take care of children by helping you learn to provide an enriched learning environment for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children.

The early childhood education program combines in-class learning and hands-on exposure in college's lab schools. You are prepared to provide high standards of quality care to children and their families in child care centres in Toronto.

The program also offers you an in-depth understanding of health and well-being of young children, child psychology, child development, and empowering children's independence. Besides this, you also learn to develop curriculums based on the individual needs of children.

Enrolment Guide

To apply for this program, you will need:

  • Secondary school diploma
  • English Grade 12 C or University or equivalent

In addition to this, you will also need to:

  • Provide a clear medical report
  • Obtain an annual clear police check with vulnerable sector cleaning
  • Provide valid first aid and CPR certificates

Author's Profile

Jason White here presents an account of early childhood education course in Toronto. He further describes how the program provides immense insight to the student into the area of child care.


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