Published: 16th July 2024. Last modified: 29th August 2024.
Written by Nick Preston, Melinda Irvine

Are you studying early childhood education and care and wondering how to get into the workforce? We spoke to Nick Preston, Recruitment Area Manager for Earlyhood Recruitment about the hiring process and what qualifications and work experience will make you stand out from the other candidates.

Resume Essentials

Your resume is the most important document in a job application, so take the time to get it right. Nick recommends a clean resume that begins with a short career summary and then accurately lists your employment history in reverse chronological order.

Start with your most recent job and then list your key responsibilities, along with your start and finish dates. Now work your way back through each job role using a clear format like the one below.

WORK EXPERIENCE

April 2022 — TO DATE
Lead Educator | Puddleducks Preschool | Rozelle, NSW
[Summarise key responsibilities and achievements]

June 2020 — March 2022
Certificate III Educator | Temp and casual positions | Greater Sydney Area
[Summarise the range of childcare centres as well as your key responsibilities]

Take the time to explain your responsibilities at work and make sure you address the skills and achievements that are listed in the job advertisement. And most importantly, include all relevant dates, positions, business names, and locations.

Common resume mistakes

Nick spent time explaining some of the most common mistakes he sees on the resumes of early childhood educators. You don’t want to miss out on your dream job because your resume wasn’t up to scratch. Let’s take a look.

Missing information — Recruiters will be concerned if there are missing details or obvious inaccuracies. If you’re going to make it to the interview pile, you'll need to present a complete career profile with the correct information.

Not addressing career breaks — a big gap in your resume really stands out and the recruiter is going to wonder what you were doing for 5 years, unless you tell them. Here’s what Nick suggests:

“What people really don’t know about resumes is that if you have taken a year off to have a baby or taken a career break for some other reason — it’s completely ok to put that in your resume.”

Rather than leaving a gaping hole in your resume timeline, you could put a short statement like this:

    May 2017 to September 2019 Family Care

    Took 2.5 years off-work to assist my elderly parents as they transitioned from their family home to assisted care. Once they were happy and settled it was great to get back in the workforce.

Be creative and remember, acceptable career gaps can be for lots of reasons: education, travel, family responsibilities, spiritual development, health and wellbeing. If you took a break for medical reasons, be clear that you are in good health now.

Using AI writing tools — an early childhood recruiter like Nick wants to hear about your real-world experience in childcare, rather than boring AI-generated text. Nick believes he can absolutely tell when someone has used ChatGPT (or similar) to prepare their resume and it causes him to question their credibility.

Focusing on fonts over facts — Nick is more interested in your experience in childcare, not fancy fonts, graphics, and emoticons. A text-based resume on a white background (that is easy to read) is much more effective than a graphic resume with lots of colours and fancy type.

Making it too long — an ECE sector resume should be no more than two A4 pages. If you have a long career history, or are applying for a high-end role like a directorship, create a detailed LinkedIn profile to support your resume and job application.

Errors — typos and spelling mistakes in your resume are bad form, so scrutinise and proofread everything thoroughly before sending it out.

Getting noticed

Early Childhood Education recruiters are busy people and they screen hundreds upon hundreds of candidates every week. If you want your resume to get noticed, begin with a well written career summary that is unique to you and highlights your skills and work experience.

The first two lines are (arguably) the most important part of any resume, so make them count. Demonstrate your passion for childcare and get the recruiter eager to learn more about you. Don’t use ChatGPT to write your career summary — it has to be about you.

Another way to make your resume stand out is to include the names and (up-to-date) contact details of two references. These should be recent managers, supervisors, or senior co-workers who can vouch for your skills, experience, and work ethic.

REMEMBER: Call your references before applying for the job and get their permission to list their personal information. You should also check their phone number and email address hasn’t changed.

Deciding on a cover letter

A cover letter will boost your chances of getting an interview, but only if it’s written properly. According to Nick, a cover letter should be:

  • Original — don’t use a template or ChatGPT to write your cover letter. Recruiters read a lot of cover letters and they can be quite skilled at detecting AI generated content.
  • Adding new information — only write a cover letter if it includes new information that is not already in your resume. If it’s not adding value, it’s just wasting time.
  • Accentuating your passion for childcare — a cover letter is an opportunity to explain why you want this job and the unique dynamics you can bring to the role.

However, if your resume is already amazing, there really is no need for a cover letter.

Just make sure it’s amazing!

Building your career profile

One of the great things about a care career path in child care is you don’t need a university qualification to get started. You can get a good job with a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and start building a career profile by gaining extra certificates and qualifications along the way.

In the short term, Nick recommends certificates in Food Handling, First Aid, CPR, Anaphylaxis and Asthma Emergency Management. And of course, a Working With Children Check (WWCC).

Once you have completed a third of your course, register with an agency like Earlyhood Recruitment for casual work and temp opportunities. Work experience is highly valued in the early childhood education and care sector so it's a good idea to get started as soon as possible.

As you gain experience, you can do formal qualifications like a Diploma or Bachelor’s degree. Be sure to create a LinkedIn profile and update your details each time you complete training or change jobs.

Final Thoughts

Working in early childhood education and care isn’t for everybody and the most successful people in this sector genuinely love kids and are passionate about children’s emotional development, education, wellbeing, and safety.

If you’re excited about entering the child care workforce, Nick leaves us with one final tip. Before sending out your resume, check and double-check your email address and phone number. Even if you’re the best candidate for the job, you won’t make it to the next round if the recruiter can’t get in touch with you. It happens.