Training for prospective child minders gets underway |05 September 2023

IECD chief executive Shirley Choppy addressing the new participants of the PRESET programme (Photo: IECD)

•All home-based child minders to be registered by end of December, 2023

The 12th cohort of prospective childminders and assistants is following a pre-registration, sensitisation and training programme (PRESET) on the national standards for childminding services until the end of October.

The session for the 33 participants got underway last Saturday at the hall of the education ministry in Mont Fleuri.

It is organised by the Institute of Early Childhood Development (IECD), in collaboration with key Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) sectors namely the Public Health Authority, Health Care Agency, Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs, Ministry of Youth, Sports and Family Affairs, and the Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency.

According to IECD, the main objective is to educate the child minders on the National Standards for Childminding Regulations 2016 and, build their overall capacity when implementing these standards.

In accordance with the IECD Act 2022, the institute is mandated to regulate home-based child care services, grant registration, and ensure compliance with the established national standards.

One way of fostering compliance with the set standards and further improvement in the quality of home-based child care service nationally is through the PRESET programme.

Speaking to Seychelles Nation, IECD’s director for regulatory affairs,Nathalie Moustache said they have received a good response following their call-out and are satisfied with the turnout, which also includes two participants from Praslin. She said some who have enrolled for the training are already offering the service but without registration.

“Legally everyone offering this service would have to be properly registered by the end of the year and must have the necessary training and document to be a childminder or an assistant. So it is primordial that we conduct this training to ensure they meet the necessary requirement and they should know it is a must to register to be a child minder,” said Ms Moustache.

She said sessions taking place on nine consecutive Saturdays until October 28, 2023 will focus on the 10 standards for child minding service, which were developed to ensure consistency across all childminding establishments and make registration and regulation of childminding services possible.

The national standards also facilitate monitoring and inspection with the aim of improving the quality of services. They include early learning, health, safety, nutrition, physical education among others.

“There will always be a demand for childminding services in the country and we are here to ensure they get the proper training. We are also reminding potential childminders they can also follow the certificate course at SITE (Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education), which is approved by the Seychelles Qualification Authority,” she added.

The training sessions include both adult learning principles and practical participation.

As usual, only participants who successfully complete the programme will receive a certificate of attendance and will be eligible to undertake the necessary formalities to register their services with the IECD.

At last Saturday’s launch of PRESET, the institute also awarded three newly registered childminders with their certificates of registration and other incentives offered to registered child minders.

Patsy Canaya, compiled from IECD press release