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institutions offering early childhood education and care training as the proposed College
of ECE would have an accreditation function.
Currently in the consultation stage, the Ministry of Child and Youth Services in
Ontario is suggesting that in addition to accrediting training institutions that legislation be
amended to increase the educational levels of all staff working with children in early
childhood settings to the diploma level. The timeframe suggested gives individuals up to
five years to complete additional training. Community colleges, especially in Ontario,
will need to respond to this initiative to increase access for these untrained individuals
(Tallentine & Diamond, 2005).
Prior learning assessment recognition (PLAR) is an identified strategy to increase
accessibility and one of seven strategies suggested by Doherty to enhance the capacity of
the field to improve quality. PLAR is the process by which individuals have an
opportunity to obtain college credit for knowledge and skills gained outside the
classroom (Morrice, 1999). PLAR has the potential to build a workforce with a defined
set of knowledge and skills while, at the same time, including those with a broad
experiential base but little formal education. To date, the use of PLAR for early
childhood credits has not been extensive enough to make a noticeable difference in
addressing recognition, recruitment or retention issues (Bertrand, 2003).
Financing, quality assurance, and mobility are the issues identified that continue
to challenge the widespread introduction and use of PLAR (Bertrand, 2003). For
individuals without formal post-secondary early childhood education training, PLAR can
be seen as a viable way to train the untrained as practitioners. PLAR could also serve as a
means to demonstrate informal learning as related to the occupational standards.