Recruiting community and private workers becomes priority

WELLINGTON – Dec. 20, 2016 –Too many PEI francophone parents don’t have access to French early childhood centres for their young children and, in some cases, have no choice but to place their children in the very few English centres that still have open spots.

In fact, about 150 children are currently on the waiting lists of the community-based early childhood centres located in the Island’s six Acadian and Francophone regions. These centres, which have the capacity to take in the majority of these children, are having great difficulty recruiting sufficient numbers of educators.

RDÉE Prince Edward Island, the provincial Francophone economic development council, wants to help defuse the crisis since it greatly affects the Francophone community and its future, not to mention the Island economy; resolving this problem is therefore considered a major priority.

“The efforts to recruit educators on the Island as well as in the Atlantic region and Quebec haven’t generated many satisfying results for various reasons,” says Robert Maddix, economic development officer with the RDÉE. “We have therefore started to look at France and Belgium as potential sources of human resources. Of the 600 résumés that we received at the recent Destination Canada job fairs in those two countries, a substantial number came from people wishing to work in early childhood education.”

He notes that the RDÉE will therefore follow up to see which of these people are ready to move to Canada to work in the field, either in the community centres or in the private sector.

“In collaboration with our Wellington Rural Action Centre, we are also ready to support any person wishing to explore the possibility of establishing his or her own private daycare service, whether that person is already a citizen or resident of PEI or if that person is thinking of moving here,” said Maddix. “Our client information officer, Velma Robichaud, would be more than happy to guide any person wishing to explore this avenue through all the steps he or she would have to go through.”

He adds that any person wishing to work in this sector must have a series of skills and specific certifications set by the province. “We will work with any interested person to ensure that he or she can access to any training or upgrading needed so that he or she can meet the standards set out by the province.”

To contact Maddix to discuss interest in the field, please call (902) 370-7333, Ext. 403, or email robert@rdeeipe.org. To contact Robichaud about starting a private business, call (902) 854-3439, Ext. 228, or email velma@rdeeipe.org.

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CUTLINE: Velma Robichaud, client information officer at Wellington Rural Action Centre, and Robert Maddix, economic development officer with RDÉE PEI, are ready to support any person wishing to work in the early childhood education field, either in community centres or in private daycares.

 

For more information:

Robert Maddix
Economic Development Officer (Immigration)
(902) 370-7333, Ext. 403
Robert@rdeeipe.org

Velma Robichaud
Client information officer
Wellington Rural Action Centre
(902) 854-3439, Ext. 228
velma@rdeeipe.org