Chan Kai Ting Sharyn (S10173420G)

 

Awareness of Early Childhood Issues 

At the start of this project, when asked to pick a topic in relation to the Early Childhood (EC) Sector, the thought of what makes educators leave the industry immediately flashed through my mind. Once, someone had told me that bus captains earn more than a preschool teacher. Though I still do not know if that is true, it made me think about how the basic salary could be one of the factors contributing to the high turnover rate in the EC sector. As a future educator, I wanted to find out more on what would possibly make me leave the industry since it is an inevitable topic for every job. With this, I set my mind on choosing manpower sustainability as the topic.

 

Through the interview with the Centre Principal, I came to the realisation that the low salary was not one of the main concerns; it was the heavy workload and high levels of stress. With further research and claims from the principal, it was more appropriate to work on how we could encourage educators to stay in the industry, instead of what makes these educators leave. Even though I still thought that salary was a problem, there were more important factors that needed to be addressed.

 

To deal with the underlying problems, the Centre Principal had a flawless support system set up in the centre and our group decided to enhance it. For that, we came up with the encouragement board and 1 to 1 sessions, which the Centre Principal had given constructive feedback on.

 

What really changed my mindset of the importance of salary in the industry was an answer given by the principal during the interview - that salary was not a huge problem if the educators did put forth their efforts. Money is not always the root of a problem in any workforce. As the principal constantly emphasized on the support system and acknowledgment in the centre, it then dawned on me that a strong support system was what educators in the industry needed.

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Personal Growth

During the whole process of this project, I have gained a lot of different skills and knowledge.
 

Firstly, communication was essential. During the interview with the Centre Principal, though I was not the interviewer, I had to listen carefully to the responses as I was the note taker and was responsible for the transcript. At the start of this project, I was unfamiliar with my new group members, hence I did not express my ideas well. However, as time passed and I got closer to my group members, I felt more comfortable as they encouraged me to share my thoughts and ideas, helping me to step out of my comfort zone and I gained confidence gradually. It was important to communicate as a team, to listen and respect everyone’s ideas and opinions so that we could work well together to complete the project.

 

Secondly, organisational skills such as sticking to the mini deadlines that we set was not easy. Not everything that we planned would go our way, hence we had to be flexible and adjust accordingly, so that we would not panic and fall behind our tasks. When we were unable to keep up with the timeline, we would work even harder to minimise the difference in the timing, ensuring that we had enough time to complete our work.

 

Lastly, one of the problems faced by us were the difference in working styles. Some of us worked well at night, while some worked well in the day. Thus, we solved this problem by lessening our group meetings and split parts for everyone to do online, so that we could all work efficiently at our own time. Also, our group had to brainstorm different ideas to come up with the recommendations for the centre. We shared our ideas and researched, before arriving at the conclusion to stack upon the centre’s current support system.

 

Though it might not seem much in the above paragraphs, no words can describe how much this project has contributed to my growth as a person and a student. These skills are definitely helpful for my future career as an educator.

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