Child-care recruitment plan falling short

Interest hasn't been as strong as expected for P.E.I.'s new accelerated early childhood care and education course.

The province is offering the course free of charge through Holland College in an effort to fill vacancies left by child-care workers leaving centres to work in the schools teaching kindergarten. Kindergarten is currently taught in child-care centres, but moves into the schools in September 2010.

The deadline for applying was last week, and Holland College registrar Donna Sutton told CBC News Thursday the classes are far from full.

"We're looking for a target in the Charlottetown area of 40 students and currently we have 26 applications," said Sutton.

"In the Summerside area we're looking for a target of 25 and we currently have 11."

Deadline extended

Sutton said it's a big commitment for people who are already working.

"It is quite a shift in mentality to go from working life back to school life," she said.

"A lot of these folks have been out of school for a number of years, and simply just making the decision to go back can be difficult."

The deadline has been extended to Nov. 6 in the hopes of filling the classes. The course start date was also moved to Nov. 23.

If after the new deadline the classes still aren't full, said Sutton, college officials will have to sit down with the province to figure out what to do next.