ECA launches Nursery Staff Training Program

As part of its ‘Takween’ Summer Program 2020, the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA) has launched, in coordination with Ministry of Education, Department of Education and Knowledge, Sharjah Education Council, Sharjah Private Education Authority and Abu Dhabi Public Health Center, Nursery Staff Training Program entitled “Improving Today for a Better Tomorrow”, which aims at ensuring nursery readiness to receive children in the current circumstances, operating them safely and creating a supportive environment to child development and wellbeing within nurseries. The move reflects ECA’s keenness on promoting early childhood development and ensuring the safety and well-being of children in nurseries.

The Nursery Staff Training features 100 sessions delivered by a leading group of experts and specialists in early childhood, to support nurseries post COVID-19, as well as introducing workers to the best preventive measures to ensure child and staff safety. It also includes a set of professional development training modules delivered through a series of online workshops, focusing on child development and wellbeing quality improvement across four sectors, including health and nutrition, child protection, family support, and education and early care.

Furthermore, the Nursery Staff Training covers multiple themes, including ensuring child and staff safety, implementing health and hygiene procedures, supporting child transition back to nursery, implementing government safety guidelines in nurseries according to the best international practices, basics of upbringing, developing and protecting children, developing partnerships with parents, and supporting children of determination’s needs.

In addition, the Nursery Staff Training aims at training and qualifying about 17,000 of nurseries’ managers, teachers and teaching assistants, to develop their capabilities and skills, identify their weaknesses and turn them into strengths, introduce them to the best childcare practices and ensure its implementation, elevate educational and development role within nurseries, and build qualified and well-trained cadres capable of supporting children development and meeting their scientific, cognitive and mental needs. After completing the training, participants will receive an accredited CPD certificate and a CACHE endorsed certificate. All nurseries’ workers can register for the program for free by visiting ECA’s website (www.eca.gov.ae), entering Parents Platform, clicking on ‘Takween’ page, and registering for the program from (Sunday) August 30 until September 13, 2020.

ECA urged, through its partners, nursery managers and workers across the UAE to register for Nursery Staff Training, to be allowed to resume nursery activities. Moreover, training steps include online registration, booking sessions, attending training sessions, completing online assessment successfully, and obtaining an accredited certification.

To re-open nurseries across the country, ECA indicated that managers and teachers as per Ministry of Education requirements shall attend the program and upload reopening operational plan documents. These documents will be assessed by specialists to make amendments, if any. Consequently, managers should obtain initial approval to open the nursery, and a field visit to the nursery will be carried out by the inspection team, then getting final approval to operate the nursery by relevant licensing authority. ECA clarified that required documents can be obtained by visiting https://www.kinderly.ae/takween.

ECA’s efforts are centered on giving young children the best care in early childhood to ensure their growth and development, to be equipped with the needed skills for future. The authority also believes that providing care and education for young children is the best investment to prepare human resources capable of pushing forward the UAE’s comprehensive and sustainable development.