Early Childhood Education – Field Placement Information

All students will require a new manual for each placement.  If you do not already have a copy of your required manual please order one from the bookstore as soon as possible.

Please note: it is not uncommon for the bookstore to run out of copies and need to back order the manual.  If you do not have the manual at the start of your placement you will not be prepared which comes off as very unprofessional, and you will not be provided with an alternative version.  All students must have a placement manual before the preplacement visit.

If you miss any days of placement due to sickness you will need to make up these days at the end of your placement period. If you miss more than five days of placement you will receive an F for placement. Plan for an additional 5 days at the end of placement in order to be able to make up any potentially missed days.

All placements require full-time hours (7-8 hours per day) Monday-Friday and cannot be condensed for a variety of reasons.

1. Your onsite supervisor is not going to be available for longer days. We try as much as possible to have students directly supervised by one person throughout the placement period.
2. Placements are designed to require students to take on increasingly more responsibilities throughout the placement period. If we condense placements further, there is no opportunity to slowly become familiar with the program and the children and to escalate the placement activities towards the final week of placement.
3. Most centres that run programs into the evening offer limited programming outside of regular business hours. After 6:00 pm centres tend to run dinner and sleep routines, there are far fewer opportunities to implement activities and curriculum.

Students cannot complete placements at a centre they work with, have volunteered with or been placed with in the past for the following reasons:

1. Our placements are unpaid. If a student is paid for the placement time, it cannot be counted as placement hours by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
2. Students cannot be counted in ratio while completing placements as they do not have RECE designation and are not yet qualified to supervise children without a direct supervisor present. We understand that exceptions are made and you may be hired to supervise children without the RECE designation, however this is a college approved placement and while in the field you are insured by the college and must be treated as an unqualified student in the field.
3. It is not appropriate for students to be directly supervised and assessed by a colleague. Students are limited in what they can try and the new experiences they can gain when completing placements in familiar settings.

There are additional personal and professional benefits of completing placements at new and different locations.  Placements allow students to try new things in a variety of settings and with different age groups.  They allow students to learn from different philosophies and bring back new skills to current positions, and lead to building connections in the field that may lead to professional references and even alternative job offers.

It is possible to challenge placement I based on experience, though placements II and III must be completed in person by all students.  Students can challenge Placement I through our Prior Learning Assessment Recognition (PLAR) process.

If you think you will be eligible to be exempted from placement I, please contact the Field Placement Officer for more information.

No, practice teaching field placements must be completed during the indicated series and cannot be saved until the end of your diploma. You must meet the academic requirements to be eligible for placement

The average placement day requires a 7-8-hour shift (excluding lunch), and the shifts vary by agency. All placements, even if you are studying part-time, require full-time working hours Monday to Friday following the same daily schedule as the onsite supervisor. Your schedule cannot be changed or adjusted during placement. Students may be starting as early as 6:45 a.m. and ending as late as 6:15 p.m.

Students will need to be fully available throughout this time; exceptions will not be made for childcare, employment, or other personal obligations. Students must make alternative arrangements to be fully available throughout this time or they may not be eligible to go out on placement in their preferred period.

No students are not permitted to contact placement agencies.  Non-local students submit their top three choices, and local students are placed at partner agencies.  All contact with agencies comes directly from the college to ensure professionalism and consistency both locally and non-locally.

*If the Field Placement Team requires help finding a placement in your area they will ask for assistance.

Local students cannot request specific placement locations.  Placements are assigned at partner locations based on travel, age group and experience.  Students are not permitted to contact agencies or make requests for placement locations.

Local students receive confirmation of field placement 2-3 weeks prior to the placement start date.  All confirmations are received by email.

Non-local students receive confirmation of field placements as the agencies confirm in order to complete the ECE Placement Request Form.  They receive a follow up email with next steps at the same time as local student confirmations, 2-3 weeks prior to the placement start date.