Diploma in Early Childhood Education

Course Description

The two-year diploma program in early learning and child care at Conestoga College is a comprehensive program that aims to prepare students for professional practice in the field of early childhood education. The program combines interactive classroom learning with work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences in order to give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills in real-world settings. Through their coursework and WIL experiences, students will gain a deep understanding of child development and responsive practice, and will be able to work effectively with families, colleagues, and communities to design and implement inclusive, play-based early learning programs. Conestoga College also offers a degree program in the early childhood field, which may be a good option for students who are interested in pursuing further education in this field.

• Create learning contexts to enable, build and maintain caring, responsive relationships in partnerships with children, families and communities that value and respect social, cultural and linguistic diversity including indigenous peoples’ worldviews and francophone identity.
• Co-create, facilitate and reflect upon inquiry and play-based early years and child care programs and pedagogical approaches to support children’s learning, holistic development and well-being following children’s capabilities, interests, ideas and experiences.
• Co-design and maintain inclusive early learning environments to value and support equitable, accessible and meaningful learning opportunities for all children, their families and communities in a range of early years and childcare settings.
• Collaborate with children, families, colleagues, agencies, and community partners to create, maintain, evaluate and promote safe and healthy early learning environments to support independence, reasonable risk-taking, and healthy development and well-being.
• Use observation strategies to identify children’s strengths and challenges and to ascertain when children and families might benefit from additional support or community resources.
• Use professional communication in interactions with children, families, colleagues, employers, the regulatory body, government authorities and children’s service agencies to meet legal and ethical standards of the early years sector.