Green Light For UCOL’s First Early Childhood Degree

A Bachelor of Early Childhood Education is now being offered from UCOL Manawatū campus for Semester Two for our past NZ Diploma graduates. Next year will see Year 1 and 2 intakes on both the Manawatū and Wairarapa campuses, followed by the Whanganui campus in 2024.

UCOL Academic Portfolio Manager - Early Childhood Education Teaching, Diana Entwistle

Te Tohu Paetahi Akoranga | Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) Level 7 degree, was recently awarded accreditation by both NZQA and the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.

UCOL Academic Portfolio Manager - Early Childhood Education Teaching, Diana Entwistle said work on creating the degree course has been ongoing since 2019.

“The Early Childhood Education sector has been struggling with significant teacher shortages for several years and our graduates have been asking for the next level of study. The support we have had from early childhood services and staff across our rohe has been a key factor in gaining accreditation for this programme, and we thank them for their contributions and support to get to this point and the important future role they will play in helping us educate the future workforce.”

Diana said the new degree is an exciting field-based programme - ākonga | students will spend two days of the week on campus and two days on placement, and learn about child development theories, cultural competencies, research and professional standards. This field-based approach has a strong focus on the application of knowledge as they gain it and put into their practice with early childhood centres.

“We opened the first intake to our alumni to meet their drive to continue their studies at degree level and to support our stakeholders to have access to the graduates of the programme as soon as possible, and from 2023, it will also be open to those seeking to gain a professional qualification as an Early Childhood Teacher.

Executive Dean Humanities & Business, Dean Rankin, said UCOL has collaborated with Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in developing this programme, and we will continue working closely with them around its implementation, including resource development and research.

“Achieving accreditation was a culmination of many years of work for UCOL, and the degree programme is a key addition to our growing Early Childhood Education portfolio.”
 

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