During 2015, The Early Care Foundation:
- extended our geographical footprint within Gauteng and to the Mpumalanga Province
- increased the numbers of ECD practitioners trained and mentored by 49%
- expanded our capacity by establishing working relationships with three new ECD agencies
2015 Activity Summary:
| 3 Core courses |
| 7 Trainers |
| 130 Certificates of Competency |
| 147 Pre-school sites |
| 210 Practitioners trained |
| 1 000 Training hours |
| 3 500 On-site support hours |
| 6 600 Children |
There remains a dire need for pre-school facilities and ECD practitioners in the country. The graphic illustrates the size of the national challenge.
To cater adequately for the ECD needs of 0-4 year olds in South Africa there is an estimated shortfall of approximately:
- 75,000 pre-schools
- 300,000 practitioners
Because many existing practitioners are under- or unqualified almost 500,000 practitioners require training in total.
The Early Care Foundation’s model provides the starting point for women with limited education and opportunities to enter into the ECD sector, establish formal pre-schools and transition to formal Level 4 ECD qualifications.
Going forward into 2016 The Early Care Foundation will continue its incubation and training programme with the owners and practitioners in informal crèches. It has proved extremely successful in enabling over 400 women become entrepreneurs with their own sustainable small business.
We continue to be committed to developing an accredited ECD bridging programme for practitioners and the organisation is in discussions with officials in the national offices of the Department of Social Development, Basic Education and the ETDP SETA to ensure this initiative conforms to national priorities.