There's A New Quebec Scholarship For People Studying Early Childhood Education
The government plans to hire 18,000 new educators.
The government of Quebec announced a new initiative to meet current and future labour needs in the childhood education services network. The plan, titled "opération main-d'œuvre," aims to recruit thousands of educators, in part through a student scholarship program offering up to $9,000.
The Minister of Families, Mathieu Lacombe, and the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity, Jean Boulet, revealed the new measures as part of a $300 million government investment to enlist more people in the profession.
Starting September 2022, any CEGEP student enrolled full-time in an early childhood education program (Techniques d'éducation à l'enfance) is eligible to receive a $1,500 scholarship per completed semester, which represents a total of $9,000 for the entirety of the program, according to a press release.
The Quebec government launched "opération main-d'œuvre" on November 30, 2021, in order to meet increasing labour demands in health care, social services, education, and childcare.
In a statement, Lacombe said the new measures represent "concrete action to attract new people to this exceptional and above all essential profession for our children, but also for society as a whole."
Op\u00e9ration main-d\u2019\u0153uvre\n\nDes mesures sont annonc\u00e9es pour recruter 18 000 nouvelles \u00e9ducatrices et nouveaux \u00e9ducateurs, en plus d\u2019en qualifier 7 000 autres d\u00e9j\u00e0 en poste dans le r\u00e9seau actuel d\u2019ici 2026. \n\nhttp://bit.ly/3IdgpL3\u00a0pic.twitter.com/yqm7C5ZFt2— Famille Qu\u00e9bec (@Famille Qu\u00e9bec) 1642451083
The Quebec government is set to recruit 18,000 new educators, in addition to re-qualifying 7,000 child care workers already in the field; a goal they plan to reach by 2026.
Minister Jean Boulet assured the public that he is "convinced that with all the means deployed, in particular the many support measures for training and skills development from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity, we will achieve our goal."
The government also announced plans to encourage retired and experienced workers to return to the field by offering a 6.6% salary bump until March 2023.
