As New Mexico’s subsidized childcare program continues to expand, so too does the gap between the supply and demand for early childhood educators. According to estimates from last year, the state needs to add at least 5,000 early childhood educators to meet the demand. Santa Fe Community College’s Aprende program is working to fill the gap.
Etago Wondimu was studying early childhood education at SFCC when she signed her son up for daycare at the college’s kids campus. That’s when she learned about Aprende—the apprenticeship program pays aspiring early childhood educators to work in childcare facilities. Wondimu said the program is the perfect complement to the education classes she has taken.
"I do my classes in the night, learning theory," she said. "And throughout the day, l come here and do everything I learned in practice."
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) toured the facility earlier this year. Catron Allred, the executive director of SFCC's Early Childhood Center of Excellence, said during the tour that Aprende is the state's first education related apprenticeship program. And, Allred said, Aprende remains the only apprenticeship program serving the workforce for zero to five-year-old education. This semester, Aprende is training 38 apprentices and nine pre-apprenctices. Despite a successful three years in Santa Fe, Allred has a bigger vision for Aprende.
"We can't make universal child care a reality unless we have the workforce for it," she said. "Now we're working on taking (Aprende) statewide."
Heinrich worked to secure funding specifically for Aprende in an appropriations bill earlier this year. He agrees with Allred that growing the early childhood educator workforce is a necessity.
"We're on a really great trajectory in terms of our commitment to universal child care," Heinrich said. "But, there are so many things that have to scale to make that a reality for the population, not just an aspiration."
Heinrich said he’s seen a lot of interest in New Mexico’s investment in early childhood education from some of his Senate colleagues from other parts of the country.
"This is a really great model for how we scale that workforce and make sure that workforce is the highest quality and the best prepared." Heinrich said.
For Wondimu, Aprende didn’t just prepare her to be an early childhood educator. It helped open her eyes to her own potential.
"The more I engaged with the kids, then I said, 'Okay, this is my calling,'" Wondimu said. "In the first semester of doing the school it opened the door for me to realize I can be a teacher.”
Now Wondimu wants to pursue a master’s degree in early childhood education and eventually open her own childcare facility. She said she wants "to be a solution" to the state's growing demand for early childhood educators. As a former stay at home mom, Wondimu wants women like her to realize their potential, too.
"I want them to come out of that comfort zone and come—just take one early childhood class," she said. "Come explore, be educators, because you can make a difference."
