Holland College is offering the second year of the Early Childhood Care and Education program on a part-time basis for certified early childhood assistants who would like to earn their diploma. 

The Early Childhood Care and Education Year 2 program, which starts in January, is a 10-credit part-time program in a blended delivery format. Some courses' components and classes take place face to face and others are distance-delivered online. Each course is offered either in the evening or on weekends, and there are no courses in the summer months. In total, the part-time program takes two years to complete. 

“This on-line blended post-secondary training model is the most efficient training option for people currently working in the field of early childhood education,” said Sonya Hooper, Executive Director of the Early Childhood Development Association of PEI. “This supports participants to study while remaining in the workforce and as a result of the ‘study then apply’ experience, theory is transformed into practice throughout the post-secondary experience.”  

The Early Childhood Care and Education Year 2 program is part of the College Transformation des Collèges Project of the Atlantic Colleges Atlantique and is funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre. Atlantic Colleges Atlantique (ACA) is the association of the seven public institutions delivering college programming in Atlantic Canada. 

“Our ECCE Year 2 blended learning program is one of seven projects taking place in Atlantic Canadian post-secondary institutions,” commented Natalie Mitton, Vice-President, Academic and Applied Research at Holland College. “Through the ACA partnership, increased collaboration among our regional colleges will assist each of our colleges as we work with government, industry and the workforce to address specific labour market needs in priority sectors, including early childhood.”