Chua Xin Ling, Joyce (S10171936A)

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Rationale

The reason I have decided to pursue the topic “Manpower Sustainability” is mainly due to my past experiences working in childcare centres. Throughout my practicums, I have seen educators leaving the centre, and some even went for a change in career sector. Though, it was not until my recent internship experience had I realized the effect of shortage of staff in the centre on the children and the educators. With limited manpower, the staffs in the centre had to constantly switch and/or combine class. In addition, the children did not get the best learning experience that they should have had. Attention given to the children were further minimized and stretched due to the increased class size.

 

Apart from the children, educators experienced high levels of stress as they have to cover more lessons, divide their attention, and take over additional duties and roles assigned to them. After seeing these situations, it made me question the choices made by the educators, that is, the reasons for their departure and the reasons for remaining in the industry.

 

False Start

As mentioned above, my experiences has left me questioning about the choices of educators in the industry. Therefore, one false start that my group had was “What causes educators to leave the centre/industry.” I was curious about this topic as I wanted to know what was so “unattractive” about this industry. In addition to that, heavy workload was a popular factor that I had heard of.

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However, after researching this topic and interviewing a preschool Principal, we were able to discover several other factors that affected the educators’ decision to leave the centre and/or industry. When we discovered that, it added on to my curiosity to the reason educators want to remain or join this industry. Thus, having similar views, my group and I have decided to focus on the reason that make educators want to stay in this industry.