Pearlyn Soon Yan Xia (S10173740F)
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Awareness of Early Childhood Issues
From this capstone project on manpower sustainability, it has brought to light that my area of focus was wrong. At the start of this project, I strongly believed that a pre-eminent reason why an educator does not want to stay in the Early Childhood (EC) industry is because of the low wages. This belief was perhaps due to my bitterness and biasedness. When I compare against my friends that are generally in the business courses, I noticed that they do not have as much assignments/workloads, and yet their wages as a fresh graduate is at least 0.5k higher.
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However, after many researches and interview with the principal, it was clearly not the case that educators leave the EC industry due to low wages. Most of them left due to work environment and stress due to workload etc. It seems that my bitterness and biasedness caused my focus to be negative and blinded my ability to judge clearly. Hence, instead of focusing on what causes educators to leave the EC industry (which only further discourages us to not continue in this industry), the lecturer redirected and advised us to focus on how this turnover rate can be reduced and prevented – what encourages the educators to stay in the EC industry.
So from the interview from the principal, we have found out that the methods she used (appreciation, one-to-one session and support system) encourages educators to stay in the EC industry. From this, I was able to learn that in the workforce, it is extremely important to support each other from the inside of the corporation. Because of this, many more may be further encouraged to stay in the EC industry.
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Personal Growth
At the start, I was very keen on taking on the topic of ‘manpower sustainability’ due to the downsides the Early Childhood (EC) industry carries. However, as mentioned earlier, my area of focus was wrong. Firstly, the substantial reason for the turnover rate in the EC industry was stress due to heavy workload instead of low wages. Next, even if I knew about the substantial reason for the turnover rate, what good will it bring me if I stayed at that stage and do not find out what actions can I take against it.
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Hence, just as there was a great shift of focus regarding our inquiry question, there was a huge shift in my way of thinking as well. Before, my thoughts were passive and against working in the EC industry due to the downsides it carries. Until I comprehended that nothing good will birth off from this capstone project but only pushing us further away from our passion for children – to become an early childhood educator. I’m thankful that my lecturer gave us an advice to shift our area of focus. She made me ponder and decide that since we are already in the EC industry, why not find ways that can prevent us from facing the possibility of leaving the workforce in the future, so we can be ‘encouraged to stay in the EC industry’.
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In addition, I have also improved on my organizational, communication and problem-solving skills. Take the interview with the principal for example. Due to the amount of data and information to be compounded, it was tough to organize. Therefore, my group mates and I had to first discuss the main areas we will focus on (e.g. work-life balance; heavy workload). Though there were several disagreements and times where I could not explain my idea well enough for my group mates to understand, they were patient with me and helped me to communicate my thoughts slowly. Afterwards, we then organize the questions and response one by one under the corresponding category.
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Though at first, I was extremely frustrated and disappointed with myself, I was reminded by the quote my friend gave me below. Though I may find myself imperfect and useless at times, I am still a work in progress, undergoing a process that helps me to become more capable to surmount the challenges I face little by little.