Instructions
Please copy, paste and edit the below on to your own centre letterhead and mail to your local MP.
You can also use the attached Word document.
<Member Name>
Member for <Electorate>
<Address>
<Date>
Dear <Member Name>,
Childcare Training Funding Cuts
I write in relation to childcare services here in <Electorate>.
Our centre, <Your Centre Name>, currently has an enrolment of <##> children, from <##> families, servicing the suburbs of <enter suburbs>.
As you know, the Victorian Department of Education and Training made a decision late last year to drastically, and immediately, cut training allocations for the Certificate III and Diploma in Early Childhood Education & Care (ECEC). This was due to a perceived ‘gross oversupply’ of qualified educators in the industry.
As a result, we can no longer access formal in-workplace training for our staff.
Put simply, this is a disaster for our centre. Our experience, formed over many years professionally servicing our community, is that students trained solely in classrooms come woefully underprepared for life as an early childhood educator and carer.
We consider that the best training is principally conducted in the workplace.
The government’s changes end in-workplace training for all future ECEC workers.
In assessing the number of places required by the industry, the government has made two incorrect assumptions:
- that there will minimal growth in overall childcare demand, despite the upcoming doubling in Commonwealth childcare subsidies for most families; and
- that just 3.5% of those currently employed in the industry will leave due to retirement, change of industry or exiting the workforce.
In fact, every other government in Australia, state and federal, considers there will be a large increase childcare demand in 2018-2019. Additionally, the industry currently experiences an employee ‘churn’ rate of 30%, not 3%.
Source: Skills IQ Report – Children’s Education and Care – April 2017
<if a Labor MP>
We urge you to urgently reconsider this decision to ensure that demand for childcare places can be met in 2018.
<if a non-Labor MP>
We urge you to pressure the government to reverse this decision to ensure that demand for childcare places can be met in 2018.
Yours sincerely,
<Your Name>
<Your Position Title>
<Your Centre Name>
