Facilitating children's learning through play.

The two-year Early Childhood Education Ontario College Diploma program prepares you to become an educator of children in a variety of early learning settings. Gain the knowledge and skills necessary to work with families and other professionals to support children's learning and development.

This program provides you with the ability to create, implement and assess play-based curricula while building stimulating child-centered environments.

Benefit from both theoretical and hands-on learning opportunities. You have three field placements during the program that focus on children from birth to age 12. These real-world experiences allow you to integrate theory with professional practice in early learning program settings.

You assist in providing guidance to children while planning, implementing and evaluating programs. Through your placements, you gain valuable hands-on skills and experience to help you understand the diverse roles, settings, and responsibilities of an Early Childhood Educator.

Upon graduation, you are eligible to register with the College of Early Childhood Educators (CECE). Registration with CECE is required to be eligible to work as an Early Childhood Educator in Ontario.

To qualify for this diploma, you must complete the program within six years.

SUCCESS FACTORS

This program is well-suited for students who:

• Have strong observational and analytical skills.
• Enjoy working as a member of a team.
• Have strong language (oral and written) skills.
• Are self-reliant and enjoy challenges.
• Are interested in child development and teaching children through play.
• Are comfortable using computers and other forms of technology.
• Enjoy working with children and their families.
• Have effective interpersonal skills.

Early childhood education is a physically demanding profession. Individuals entering this profession must be able to lift children, materials and equipment (up to 32 kgs). As well, individuals must be able to run/move quickly between areas in the room and outside in order to ensure children's safety. In addition, educators must constantly observe children to ensure safety and to assess children's abilities, skills, and interests in order to develop meaningful curricula. Entering the program without these abilities may result in unsuccessful field placements, and students who are unsuccessful in field placements are not eligible to graduate.

Careers

Registered Early Childhood Educators may find employment in: early learning and care programs; nursery schools; kindergarten classrooms; community health agencies; home childcare organizations; entrepreneurial opportunities.

Pathways

Please note: There may be more pathways available for this program than are listed here. Please use our Pathways search tool to see every option.

The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

1. Create learning contexts to enable, build and maintain caring, responsive relationships in partnerships with children, families and communities that value and respect social, cultural and linguistic diversity including Indigenous peoples' worldviews and Francophone identity.
2. Co-create, facilitate and reflect upon inquiry and play-based early years and child care programs and pedagogical approaches to support children's learning, holistic development and well-being following children's capabilities, interests, ideas and experiences.
3. Co-design and maintain inclusive early learning environments to value and support equitable, accessible and meaningful learning opportunities for all children, their families and communities in a range of early years and child care settings.
4. Collaborate with children, families, colleagues, agencies and community partners to create, maintain, evaluate and promote safe and healthy early learning environments to support independence, reasonable risk-taking and healthy development and well-being.
5. Use observation strategies to identify children's strengths and challenges and to ascertain when children and families might benefit from additional support or community resources.
6. Use professional communication in interactions with children, families, colleagues, employers, the regulatory body, government authorities and children's service agencies to meet legal and ethical standards of the early years sector.
7. Act in accordance with relevant legislation, regulations, College of Early Childhood Educators Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, agency policies and procedures and principles of evidence-informed practice and reflect upon their impact on one's own role in early years and child care settings.
8. Identify, report and document when a child is in a situation of perceived risk for, or actual neglect or abuse, in accordance with legislation, the College of Early Childhood Educators Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, policies and procedures.
9. Create and engage in partnerships with families, communities, colleagues, inter-disciplinary professionals, authorities and child service agencies to advocate for quality early years and child care programs and services.
10. Engage in reflective practice and continuous professional learning in accordance with principles of lifelong learning, evidence-informed practices in the early years sector and requirements of the College of Early Childhood Educators.
11. Identify and apply discipline-specific practices that contribute to the local and global community through social responsibility, economic commitment and environmental stewardship.

Application Information

Read this before applying:

Part-time students are required to apply for this program. Once accepted, you can register on a course by course basis through your ACSIS account. The courses take place entirely online except for the three Practice Teaching courses which are completed in the field on a full-time basis. 

Program Resources

PRACTICE TEACHING FIELD PLACEMENTS:
Students in the Early Childhood Education program complete three practice teaching field placements during their studies. These placements are assigned by the Field Placement Officer with an emphasis on having students experience different programs and age groups during their course of study.

FIELD PLACEMENT ELIGIBILITY:
Please note that due to limited practice teaching field placements in the Ottawa area (including surrounding areas), part-time students are not guaranteed to undertake placements in their preferred term. We are committed to accommodating students where possible. Students may be required to travel up to 90 minutes to reach their practice teaching field placement. While every attempt is made to provide students with a placement close to a preferred area, this is not always possible.

Students are not permitted to contact childcare centres in an attempt to arrange placement. Hours vary from centre to centre. Students may be starting as early as 7:00 a.m. and ending as late as 6:15 p.m.

Practice teaching field placements are completed during regular, full-time working hours. Students will need to determine the schedule for placements well in advance to make arrangements to be available for that period of time. Practice teaching field placements must be completed during the indicated series and cannot be saved until the end of your diploma.

Students can only obtain Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition credits toward their first practice teaching seminar and placement (FAM1233/FAM1234).

DISTANCE EDUCATION STUDENTS:
Please note that due to limited practice teaching field placements in the Ottawa area (including surrounding areas), students from outside of the region will not be permitted to do placements in Ottawa and the surrounding area. Students outside the Ottawa area will be responsible for providing a selection of suitable placement agencies. The Field Placement Officer will confirm the eligibility of these agencies and make the final arrangements for student placements.

FIELD PLACEMENT REQUIREMENTS:
Upon acceptance into the program, the following requirements must be met. Failure to complete these requirements will prevent students from participating in the field placement components of the course.

HEALTH REQUIREMENTS:
Applicants must provide evidence of full and complete immunizations. ParaMed will review the student's record of immunization and provide authorization for entry into field placement. More information in this regard will be available on the website for successful applicants.

Valid standard First Aid and CPR Certification (St. John Ambulance, Red Cross or equivalent) must be completed prior to the commencement of classes. This certificate must be valid for the duration of the program.

Successful completion of field placement is a requirement for graduation from the Early Childhood Education program. Agencies that provide placement opportunities may require you to have a clear Police Records Check for Service with the Vulnerable Sector (PRCSVS). Your acceptance for placement is at the discretion of the agency. If you register in the program without a clear PRCSVS and as a result are unable to participate in placement, you will not be able to graduate.

To be eligible for placement, you must have submitted proof of first aid certification, PRCSVS and health authorization through ParaMed. You will be required to disclose the contents of the PRCSVS, including all notations, to the placement agencies. More information regarding this process is available online at https://www.algonquincollege.com/online/field-placement/.

ACADEMIC PROBATION:
Students who have two or more F grades in a given term or whose term grade point average falls below 1.7 are considered to be on academic probation (Policy AA14 Grading System). This requires the student to meet with their academic manager to sign a learning contract which identifies the conditions which must be met to continue in the program. Students who do not meet the terms of their learning contract are withdrawn from the program.

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING OVERVIEW:
There are three block placements required for the ECE online program. They are offered in Levels 02, 03, and 04 of the program and require a commitment of 4, 4 and 5 weeks on predetermined schedules. 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.

PLACEMENT ELIGIBILITY:
In order to be eligible for practice teaching field placements, students must meet the following requirements prior to the placement deadline:

1. Academic Clearance: Students must complete all required prerequisite courses prior to the placement start date.
2. Placement Request Form: Students are required to submit a placement request form prior to each placement deadline.
3. ParaMed Clearance: Students are required to meet the following medical and non-medical requirements. Upon completion, these requirements must be confirmed through ParaMed, our partner organization; a. Immunization Records; b. Police Records Check for Service with the Vulnerable Sector (PRCSVS); c. Standard First Aid/CPR Level C.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Further placement information for online students can be found on the Field Placement Centre: https://www.algonquincollege.com/online/field-placement.

ACADEMIC PLANNER:
The Academic Planner provides registered part-time students in AC Online the ability to declare into a Program of Study. The Academic Planner outlines successfully completed courses to date, as well as courses that need to be completed in order to meet graduation requirements. It is therefore essential that all part-time students declare into their program of study, allowing administrators to plan course offerings. The tool is available in ACSIS, located under 'Part-Time Students' on the left-hand toolbar.

PRIOR LEARNING ASSISSMENT AND RECOGNITIONS (PLAR):
Students who wish to apply for PLAR need to demonstrate competency at a post-secondary level in all of the course learning requirements. Evidence of learning achievements for PLAR candidates may include a comprehensive challenge examination and/or completion of a portfolio.

PROGRAM PROGRESSION:
As per policy AA39: Program Progression and Graduation Requirements, when the students are admitted to a program, they are assigned to the Program of Study that aligns with their start date. If a student takes a break for two or more consecutive terms the Program of Study is reset to align with the current version (when studies are resumed).

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Individual course registration is not available for full-time online programs. This program is also offered full-time on the Woodroffe, Pembroke and Perth Campuses, as well as part-time through Online Learning. For more information on the Full- and Part-time online delivery options, please visit https://www.algonquincollege.com/AO.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
This program is fully online, and students are required to have a computer and access to the Internet.

Algonquin College has several articulation agreements with other colleges and universities whereby ECE graduates receive credit towards these diplomas or degrees.

Future Students

For additional information, please contact our Customer Service Representative team at online@algonquincollege.com and they will direct you to the best person to answer your specific questions.

Current Students

For additional information, please reference the AC Online Circle of Care.