At this year’s Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) Summit, the panel Leveraging Funding Models to Support Pre-Service Educators featured Joan Blough of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation (ECIC)’s Child Care Innovation Fund. Joan highlighted a key initiative that has opened new pathways to higher education and career advancement in early childhood education.
Representing the work of ECIC’s Child Care Innovation Fund (CCIF) in partnership with Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential’s (MiLEAP) Caring for MI Future, Joan shared how Early Care and Education Registered Apprenticeships (ECE RAPs) are an important talent development resource for Michigan’s child care employers. Joan highlighted how the designing and scaling of ECE RAPs was a cross-sector strategy that engaged state, regional and local partners. For aspiring or current early educators ECE RAPs are a no-cost or low-cost strategy to gaining two nationally recognized credentials. The blending of paid on-the-job training and experience with aligned no-cost or low cost opportunities for education and credentialling, makes registered apprenticeship an innovative and effective pathway for building a career in early care and education.
!With the flexibility of multiple apprenticeship pathways, ECE RAPs making an affordable Child Development Associate credential and/or an associate’s degree more accessible than ever before. Joan’s insights at the IHE Summit provided a deeper look at how Michigan has been implementing ECE RAP expansion not just to fill workforce gaps—but to create meaningful, long-term solutions that benefit child care employers and prospective and current early educators. If you want to learn more about ECE RAPs in Michigan, take a look at the 2024 Early Care and Learning Registered Apprenticeships in Michigan Report.