ST. CLOUD -- St. Cloud Technical and Community College has received money from United Way of Central Minnesota through the Initiative Foundation to help students get an Early Childhood Education Certificate.

The program is six three-credit-hour online classes over the summer.

Shanda Davis is the Dean of Business, IT, and Online Learning at SCTCC. She says the child care field is in desperate need of workers.

The United Way and the Initiative Foundation initially reached out to president Cheek when they started getting an awareness of the severe shortage of early childhood education slots for young children and recognized that this could really impact the recovery from the pandemic.

Davis says students in the program are often already working in the field, and the program allows them to get higher-paying positions.

The intent of the certificate is really kind of twofold, to increase the number of people entering this as a new career field, and also increase the incentive for people currently working in the field to be retained.

 

They can also apply skills they are learning in class that day at work.

They can also use the credits towards further education.

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