Industries like nursing, manufacturing and electrical work have largely seen the benefits of apprenticeships’ rise over the last few years, touting high-wage jobs with an easy entry point of earning as you learn.
But there is one seemingly similar working-class career that has been largely overlooked: early childhood care.
“We got a contract from the Department of Labor and I had to laugh because early childhood was designated as an ‘emerging field’ for apprenticeships; but I wrote a grant 30 years ago for it,” Reeva Murphy, project director of the Early Childhood Workforce Connector, says.
There has been a revival in the sector, partially driven by a post-Covid-19 awareness of the importance of child care centers and child care workers. And the boost comes as the sector is struggling to recruit and keep its workforce, with many experts turning toward the same solution: more males in the field.
“A classroom is a perfect example of a miniature community and when any aspect of the community is missing, it doesn’t feel whole,” Kyle Dooley, a kindergarten teacher in Virginia, says. “If we’re lacking adult males in the classroom or school in general, it’s a different vibe.”
Dooley is part of a small number of men working in early childhood education, a minority that has remained at roughly 3 percent for decades. Some experts believe apprenticeship programs like Murphy’s could relieve the field’s hiring crisis by recruiting more men.
Apprenticeships, along with more male representation during recruiting and a concerted shift to market toward men, could be game-changing, experts say.
“There’s some fascinating apprenticeship programs that are attracting more men and it’s a very attractive notion,” says Calvin Moore, CEO of the Council for Professional Recognition, an organization focused on advancing career paths for early childhood educators. “[Men] understand apprenticeships more than the traditional degree route. And I believe those are the silver-bullet solutions.”
Early Inroads
There have been some efforts, most notably Murphy’s Early Childhood Workforce Connector, which was established in July 2023 under the Department of Labor. After two years, over 1,000 apprentices are working in child care centers, which Murphy largely credits to cross-sector relationships.
“Connections across sectors were not solid and the different fields did not understand each other well,” she says, adding that explaining the value of child care has been helpful. “Our message is, ‘We’re the workforce behind your workforce. Your apprentices, who have children, can’t complete theirs without child care.’”
Other apprenticeship programs have cropped up throughout the nation, including the Council for Professional Recognition’s focus on allowing high school students to earn their Child Development Associate (CDA) certification while getting their high school diploma. In some school districts, like Miami-Dade, the program has close to a 50-50 split of male to female participants.
“We believe the high school CDA is probably the future; if we can get young men introduced to the field early, then they’re likely to stay,” Moore says. But in order to get men in those programs, Bryan Nelson, founder of MenTeach.org and longtime scholar in the field, believes it is important to have male representation from the start.
“Men need other men to recruit them,” Nelson says. When a Georgia classroom brought in a male leader to discuss a future in teaching, it created “the most popular classroom in the state.”
“It makes you feel like you’re not the odd duck,” he says.
Dooley, the teacher in Virginia, also believes in the importance of choosing words that will resonate with young men. Typically, he says, child care roles are associated with words like “nurturing,” “patient” and “caring.” While all true, those terms do not speak to the roles men typically believe they can and need to fill, he says.
“I think that a big part of the male psyche is ‘How can I be strong and courageous in my field?’” Dooley says. “But it takes a lot of strength and courage to work with children. And I don’t think that’s shown, or seen, or felt, if you’re not inside the classroom.”
Beyond recruiting, there needs to be a focus on retaining the workforce — which extends to all child care workers, regardless of sex. Job growth hovers at roughly 1.4 percent and while teachers are enjoying their jobs, they’re burned out, with many relying on other avenues to survive and others unable to afford to retire.
Moore points out even the men that traditionally start off in teaching positions often move up to administrative roles, such as superintendent, due to its higher pay. Dooley laments the lack of upward mobility in classroom roles.
“If you’re staying with teaching and are in the classroom, of course you get a tiny pay raise, but it’s not a chance to receive a new title or get a bigger room or earn vacation,” he says. “Things like that equate to status and is something men often look for in their career.”
Which Comes First — Men or Money?
Money becomes a chicken-and-egg situation: some experts, like Moore, believe if more men join the field, similar to nursing, pay will go up.
“I do think the issue is complex; the wage issue is more complex, the benefits and retirement are more complex, but if I were to cast my bets, if we get more men by huge numbers, it would make a significant difference,” he says.
But others believe men will only join when wages go up first. Men – often expected to serve as the breadwinner – will likely be dissuaded until that occurs, according to Murphy.
“There are men who truly enjoy this work and are really good at this work, but they wouldn’t go take a job that started at $8 an hour,” she says.
According to the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) at the University of California, Berkeley, child care workers are in the bottom 3 percent of workers nationally, making an average of $13.07 per hour.
Shauna Dyer, associate director of research and policy at CSCCE, points to the gender devaluation theory, in which occupations that were predominantly male and become predominantly female see a dip in wages, and vice versa. Nursing and computer science, both of which have seen a steady uptick in men, have had a corresponding increase in wages, she says.
“What excludes men in this field is not just the idea that it’s feminine to take care of children; it’s that we don’t value paying people a family living wage to do that work,” she says.
But Dyer adds that pay will not increase for early child care workers without a strong push from the labor force itself.
“I don’t think nurses got to the place they are now without fighting for it,” she says. “They weren’t guaranteed higher wages, but just didn’t give up.”
Murphy, the apprenticeship specialist, adds that more money could flow in when there are multiple pathways to licensure. Nursing, for example, offers an easier entry point of a nurse practitioner license which can eventually be a stepping stone to a registered nurse certification.
“Those pathways certainly started helping wages go up, and as they went up you see a lot more men now,” she says.
A Slow Shift
Beyond awareness of the importance of paying early childhood educators — though action has been slow for many — there has been a societal shift toward caretakers in general.
“I would like to think it is changing,” says Dooley, who was the sole male in his teaching classes in college. “Thinking about what I see on social media, with TikTok and Instagram, there are more young male influencers in the classroom.”
According to the Institute for Family Studies, more men are involved in raising their children, increasing their average time spent with children by one hour (to 7.8 hours a week), while women’s time has remained roughly the same.
Concerns about men being in classrooms with children have largely eased, partly due to the proliferation of technology in early childhood spaces.
“I think technology and other compliance-type infrastructure has allowed a more common-sense approach to what’s actually happening in early childhood education,” Moore of the Council for Professional Recognition says. “More than anything else, children need to be protected regardless of the gender of the profession.”
Murphy is cautiously optimistic about the future of the child care workforce.
“We want everyone to have access to the field and do the work, because there is a huge need,” Murphy says. “It is an uphill battle, but being in this field 43 years, [I’ve seen] a lot of progress and you just have to keep pushing that.”
This post is exclusively published on eduexpertisehub.com
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