Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded Ivy Tech Foundation a $21.9 million grant to help strengthen Indiana’s early childhood education workforce.
The three-year grant will expand options and improve access to high-quality postsecondary education and training for current and future professionals within the field.
The current supply of early education professionals is limited and hampers the state’s capacity to provide high-quality childcare options for Hoosier families.
Ivy Tech is the state’s largest provider of post-secondary education and training to early childhood professionals. The grant will support their efforts to expand their programs and create new education and training opportunities, including new credentials for Hoosiers who seek to enter and advance within the profession.
“Among the most critical challenges facing early childhood education programs in Indiana are the recruiting, retaining and compensating of qualified teachers and caregivers,” said Ted Maple, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for education. “Though Ivy Tech cannot solve these challenges alone, we believe that its plan to expand and enhance training and education offerings has the potential to improve the quality of the early childhood workforce in significant ways, ultimately to the benefit of thousands of young children in Indiana.”
With support from the new grant, Ivy Tech aims to increase enrollment in its early childhood programs by more than 100% by 2027. Ivy Tech will also:
- Develop competency assessments to recognize and reward professionals for skills from previous on-the-job experiences and identify where skills are needed.
- Create early childhood education micro-credentials to fucus on issues important to early childhood education including Child and Youth Growth and Development, Health, Safety and Nutrition, Family and Community Engagement and more.
- Partner with state agencies, organizations and post-secondary institutions to launch federally registered adult-based early childhood apprenticeships.
- Explore implementation of Kids on Campus, a program to address the needs of student parents.
- Develop new transfer pathways that enable students to apply their early childhood education associate degree towards earning more advanced degrees.
- Promote new education and training opportunities and elevate early childhood education through a statewide marketing campaign.
“Early childhood educators are essential to children’s learning and development and foundational to the success of Indiana’s workforce and economy,” said Courtney Roberts, president, Ivy Tech Foundation. “This generous grant from Lilly Endowment will enable Ivy Tech to deliver relevant and responsive postsecondary education and training that will improve the quality of the state’s early childhood education sector, support efforts to retain existing professionals and attract more educators to the field.”
For more information about the Ivy Tech Foundation, visit ivytech.edu.
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Contact Health & Environmental Reporter Hanna Rauworth at 317-762-7854 or follow her on Instagram at @hanna.rauworth.
