Early Childhood Education

Few jobs shape a person as early, or as deeply, as the work of an early childhood educator. At the South Winnipeg Campus in the city’s south end, RRC Polytech offers its Early Childhood Education diploma, a two-year, six-term programme that treats play as the engine of learning and puts the child at the centre of every plan.

Your opening term introduces Child Development 1, Guiding 1 and Introduction to Play, Environments and Curriculum, backed by Communication Strategies and Academic Writing. Term 2 widens the lens with Guiding 2, Curriculum Planning 1, Health and Well Being, Explore the Early Childhood Education Profession and Introduction to Science of Early Child Development. Second-year students at South Winnipeg take Child Development 2, Guiding 3, Curriculum Planning 2, Diversity and Inclusion and Partnerships in Early Childhood Education, then finish classes with A Context for Practice With Indigenous Peoples, Reflecting on Play Based Curriculum, Topics in Child Development, Mentorship, Advocacy and Community and Professional Behaviour in Early Childhood Education.

Classes at South Winnipeg alternate with time in real rooms full of children: a ten-credit Practicum 1 after the first year and a six-credit Practicum 2 at the end. Centre mentors supervise each placement and assess how well you plan activities that support the intellectual, physical, emotional and social development of young children. Completing the diploma makes you eligible to seek ECE II status from the Province of Manitoba, and graduates can transfer credits into Athabasca University’s Bachelor of Professional Arts, the University of Calgary’s Bachelor of Community Rehabilitation or the University of Victoria’s Child and Youth Care degree.

Typical jobs include preschool educator, infant care centre staff member, school-age program leader, family resource centre worker and nursery school educator, and with experience, supervisor or director of a child care centre. The South Winnipeg ECE programme suits calm, creative people who want to guide children through play, work closely with parents, and meet the criminal record and child abuse registry requirements.