Educator

The role of early childhood educator has evolved a lot in the past few years. In addition to offering basic care, their role involves both the education and socialisation of children. Thanks to their competencies and expertise, the educators plays an important role in the development of young children. They guide and accompany them in their activities and daily experiences.

The educator supports the children in the acquisition of various competencies and abilities. They are a true partner of parents when it comes to children’s development. The various activities they propose for the children support the development of their global and fine motor skills, their self-confidence, their vocabulary, their autonomy, their capacity to integrate a group, to solve problems, etc.

The educator is primarily responsible for the application of the educational program with the children. Their intervention has the objective of ensuring their harmonious global development. The educator organises, leads, and evaluates individual, group, and sub-group activities to allow each child to develop their full potential. These activities stimulate the affective, physical and motor, social and moral, cognitive and linguistic dimensions of the child’s development.

The educator works regularly as a team with their colleagues and is equally called to work in tight collaboration with the children’s parents as well as with other childhood professionals so that all adults surrounding the same child work in the same direction.

Job Description

• Ensure the safety, health, and well-being of the children and offer them an adapted environment
• Offer planning that is adapted to the needs and interests of the child
• Work in partnership with the families and resource persons
• Collaborate with other staff
• Observe and encourage reflection on the children’s needs
• Ensure the cleanliness of the indoor and outdoor environments

Qualifications

The candidate must have training in early childhood:

• Level 1: Childcare Assistant
• Level 2: Childcare Worker
• Level 3: Childcare Supervisor
• or equivalent (free and fast credential recognition)

Benefits

• Health: This may include medical, dental, and optical coverage
• Retirement: Certain centres offer the possibility of contributing to a retirement savings plan
• Salary: If the centre is licensed, salary raises are applied to the base salary according to the level of study:
  Niveau 1: $1.44/hour
  Niveau 2: $2.70/hour
  Niveau 3: $4.42/hour

Aptitudes

• Team spirit
• Spirit of collaboration
• Proactive
• Leadership
• Respectful
• Capacity to communicate and reflect on their actions
• Creativity and sense of humour
• A sense of organisation 

Source: Ministère de la famille du Québec