Technology improves access to child care training

 

Technology is helping programs like Child Care Aware (CCA) connect with their constituents in every corner of their 17-county service area, from as far north in Grand Marias to their own neighbors in Pine City. In an effort to improve accessibility to training courses, CCA is introducing mediated telepresence courses.

Mediated telepresence (MT) courses allows participants to access training from sites throughout the district to a trainer located at another site. MT training even allows for remote connections from anywhere via computer or mobile device, so providers can access face-to-face training from home.

Child Care Aware – whose mission is to promote high-quality, affordable and accessible child care of all Minnesota families – provides training courses to those in child care, whether they are licensed family daycare or center-based. Not only are many of these courses required for licensing purposes, but they are also used to earn star ratings under the voluntary Parent Aware rating system.

The goal of CCA courses are to provide high-quality training for providers to get children ready for school.  MT will expand CCA’s ability to offer courses, while increasing the availability of training to established and new providers.

“For some providers, the drive to a training site can be more than two hours, and this is after a long work day. So this gives them options,” said Wendy Walburg, district coordinator.

Mediated telepresence classes will help providers in Pine City, too. When there aren’t enough students to fill an on-site class, the training might be cancelled. Because MT courses are broadcast from an originating site to multiple locations, CCA is able to offer a wide variety of classes without the concern of the number of attendees per site.

 

Go online for more information about CCA's professional development and training. To register for training or to request more information, call 320.629.5164.