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Department Chair
Michell Naidoo
510.215.4132
General Education Building, Room 109
Faculty, Early Learning Center Director
Brianne Ayala
510.215.4885
Early Learning Center
Hours
Monday – Friday
8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Make a Difference in Children’s Lives

The Field

Early childhood educators care for and teach young children in preschool, daycare and after school programs. They provide the safe, nurturing environments that families and communities depend on.

They’re also part of something bigger. Preschool is the foundation for all future learning and skill building.  That makes the educational, emotional, social and physical development that children experience during early childhood vital for future success. Research shows that children who go to preschool are more likely to graduate high school, earn higher salaries and own homes.

The Outlook

A majority of all four-year-olds in the US are now engaged in some sort of center-based or at-home formal education program.

For more information about entry-level jobs, like how many are available and how much they pay, check out the Teacher Assistant, Tutor and Childcare Worker pages in our online Career Coach. You can also use it to find out more about the kinds of jobs you could qualify for after gaining more experience or education, like Preschool or Childcare Center Administrator.

If you want to work with younger children, you’ll need energy, kindness, flexibility and good communication skills. You’ll also need the right education.

Our Program

CCC’s on-campus Early Learning Center provides preschool, afterschool and daycare services to diverse groups of children, aged 2-5. After you’ve spent time in the classroom studying how to create healthy, safe and stimulating learning environments, you can gain experience observing and working directly with them, there. And if you’d like experience working in other environments, we can set you up with an off-campus mentor, too.

If you want to get right to work or advance to a higher position, we have certificates of achievement for associate teachers and Montessori educators, as well as in violence intervention and counseling.

And if you want to transfer to a four-year university and become a teacher or other more highly trained professional, we’ve got you covered with associate’s degrees in early childhood and Montessori education.

Whatever you decide, at CCC you’ll have the support of great, caring teachers, counselors, a career center and students just like yourself, who want to see you succeed. Our Early Childhood Education department has free tutoring and a book loan program to save you money on textbooks. If you’re already working with children, you could even get small professional development stipends that pay back part of your enrollment cost, just for passing classes.

We are with you all the way.

So, why not check out the program, see if we can help you pay for school or even get the ball rolling and apply now?