Degree boost for childcare workers

A unique group of graduates, some of whom began their third-level education over 20 years ago, have just been awarded their degrees in early childhood care and education from the Dublin Institute of Technology.

The 55 women, who received their degrees at a conferring ceremony in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, had previously completed the certificate and diploma in early childhood care and education at the DIT. A number of the women attended the college as far back as 1977 when the certificate course was introduced.

The three-year ordinary-level BA in early childhood care and education at the DIT School of Social Sciences has replaced the certificate and diploma courses and has been on offer to school leavers since 1999.

The first group to come in through the CAO will graduate in 2002. However, special arrangements were made to allow those who had completed the diploma to meet the degree requirements through a three-month conversion course.

"Courses in the care area are all moving towards degree level. We wanted this degree so our people wouldn't be left behind," says Anne Fitzpatrick, course co-ordinator for the BA in early childhood care and education.

"Some of the people who have just graduated were already managers, so we had people moving into management positions who only had diploma level training. These particular people have been waiting a long time for degree-level training."

The DIT ran the conversion course part-time for two evenings a week during the autumn college term of 2000 to allow the diploma holders to update their knowledge of the childcare areas and develop new skills. Those who attended the course were already working in childcare positions, including at the new children's play centre at Mountjoy prison and Department of Justice community crΦches.

Brenda Kenny, manager of St Audeon's pre-school in Dublin, is one new graduate who has been waiting a long time for her BA.

"I completed the certificate in 1981-82 and then went back to do the diploma in 1993, but I had always wanted to achieve this level of education," she says.

"Early education has always been the Cinderella of the education system and early childcare workers didn't have much of a status. This degree will do a lot to change that."