Early childhood education gives you the opportunity to gain exposure to everything you can learn about kids from birth to age 8. This means you will be taking a very microscopic look at children from the preschool level up until early childhood. With this broad-based learning, you will have many career options as you graduate from an early childhood education course. Here are just some career options offered by an early childhood education degree.
Preschool Teacher
One of the career options you can choose is to become a preschool teacher. Even if you take online classes, you can still become one. As a preschool teacher, you will have the responsibility of teaching the foundational lessons and skills that kids will need as they grow up.
This includes activities that children need outside of school, such as sports and self-discipline skills. Your role as a preschool teacher is important because you will be in charge of shaping the children’s minds at a very important stage in their lives. You also need to be able to incorporate the children’s innate nature to be active and play during their learning process. Because of this, you need to be creative as a preschool teacher.
Private Tutor
For families that prefer home based child care, there is a demand for private tutors. With your degree in early childhood, you can assume the role of a private tutor. Your responsibility will go further than simply teaching kids how to read and write, and will involve teaching basic manners as well.
With this kind of job, you will only need to teach one child at a time. In this sort of set-up, you are given the advantage of focusing on just one child. You will be able to learn the behavior of this child and mold the lesson plans according to the child’s needs.
Nanny
When people hear the word “nanny,” they instantly think of a bunch of chores such as cleaning or washing clothes. However, nannying can mean different things depending on the employer.
As a nanny, you will be responsible for looking after children and giving them the care they need. For other families, they sometimes require a nanny with an educational background involving children so as to be more effective while handling children. They will also be more comfortable leaving their children with a person who has a relevant educational background.
Teacher Assistant
If you’re not ready to become a full-time preschool teacher or private tutor yet, you can assist someone who is more senior than you and learn from them. You will be able to do this as a teacher’s assistant.
As a teacher’s assistant, you will be tasked to enforce classroom rules, help the teacher out, check papers, reinforce lessons, and support the teacher with anything that they might need. In your stint as a teacher’s assistant, you can keep learning from the teacher while working on becoming a full-time teacher on your own.
Daycare Worker
To work in some daycare centers, you will be required to have an early childhood education degree. In some daycares, it’s not all games and play. There are also activities that allow children to learn.
As a daycare worker, you are tasked to organize activities for the children, prepare snacks and meals, organize activities, create schedules, take care of the kids, and even change diapers. In these daycare centers, you also need to check on the developmental progress of the children before they go to full-time school. That’s why a background in early childhood education is necessary.
Special Education Teacher
With an early childhood education degree, you can also take the path of becoming a special education teacher. You will need to have more focus since you will be working with kids who have a wide spectrum of emotional, physical, and mental needs.
At the same time, you also need to work hand-in-hand with the parents of these children to make sure that what they learn in school will also be implemented at home. As a special education teacher, you can either work with just one student or in a classroom setting. You can decide which one to choose based on what suits you.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of potential career paths that you can take once you graduate from an early childhood education course. In any of these paths that you might take, you can make a huge impact on another child’s life. Depending on what you are passionate about and what fits your personality, you can choose from the options given above.
