Early childhood professional development and training is a topic that is integral to our culture at Petit Early Learning Journey. Our learning management system (LMS) which is accessible to all educators and employees via the Educator Portal is one of the tools we use to impart knowledge, foster team building and promote a high quality of education and care.
The aim of our LMS, individual and group training, professional learning, mentoring, inductions that provide a strong foundation, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, active and regularly reviewed professional development plans is to embed a supported, accessible and visible culture of learning within our services.
Ultimately, our goal is to create successful education and care outcomes for children and families. The LMS provides easy access to information on our curriculum, policies and procedures as well as training and early childhood professional development.
The implementation of our LMS began as a discussion on how to better support our educators and with it evolved an early learning management system developed by educators for educators (and more). We talk to Mathew Furbank our People and Culture Operations Manager and and to our team at Petit ELJ Hamilton to discover:
- More about what our LMS provides
- How it enables a learning foundation for new team members
- How it is inspiring our people to strengthen our curriculum and strive for excellence
About our Education and Care Learning Management System
“The LMS was introduced in 2022 following feedback we received from our employee engagement survey in 2021โ, says Mathew. โOur teams identified their desire to have easy access to professional development that was useful and meaningful and also an easier way to access company information.โ
โPetit ELJโs LMS provides us with a centralised space to house and track all our mandatory compliance training, allowing us the ability to track and monitor our employees progression through their training, creates a digital footprint for our compliance of regulatory requirements and it also celebrates learning and achievements by issuing our team members with certificates of completion.โ
โIt also provides a centralised space to house all of our professional learning, educational practice resources and policies and procedures, enabling easy access and reference for our teams.โ
Our teams can access the web application through a secure portal embedded into our Petit ELJ website from any location, empowering our teams to continue learning when their centre may be inaccessible, such as COVID-19 or weather-related closures. It also promotes engagement and helps to support educatorsโ goals.
โHaving our own LMS gives us the ability to strengthen our teams professional development library by being able to host third party and in-house training modules, tailored to our early childhood servicesโ needs.โ
Creating a learning foundation for educators in Early Childhood Education and Care
Along with group training and daily conversations, where our team members collaborate and communicate within their services to share knowledge, research and experience on best practices and pedagogy, the LMS provides a central place to communicate and set clear standards of performance for all our teams. It is one tool in our onboarding process that supports a learning foundation.
โAt the time of onboarding, our new employees are issued with their LMS log in and their mandatory compliance training. Once on board, our team members are on a yearly cycle where they are re-issued with their mandatory compliance training to complete.โ
โOnce a new employee has been issued their log in for the LMS, they will use it to complete part of their induction, and it is also a handy tool to help them get to know our business better and gain a deeper understanding of our policies and procedures. It allows them to get familiar with the benefits of working for us that they can access and gives an insight into Petit ELJ as a whole business.โ
A new team memberโs induction into the Petit ELJ Family provides an opportunity for open and honest communication. We always welcome questions and encourage our teams to collaborate and identify professional development opportunities.
Inspiring our people to strengthen our curriculum and strive for excellence
โAs a centre we find the LMS helpful for both professional development and time management,โ says Monica Padua, Centre Director at Petit ELJ Hamilton. Monica accesses the LMS regularly. โI have used it to do the mandatory training and to refresh my knowledge of current practices.โ
โAs a Centre Director it has helped me to monitor and verify my teamโs training completion and movement, allowing me to follow up with individuals in a timely manner. It ensures that we are up to date and compliant with our policies and regulations.โ
โWith the current resources, I find the Sleep Smart training and Child Protection training informative and it allows me to be more confident when performing tasks and mentoring educators.โ
โThe initial roll out has helped me to update my certification and encourage others. It has been so much easier to track everyoneโs progress and address their questions as we can easily refer back to it through the online portal.โ
Maddison Ransome, a Lead Educator at Petit ELJ Hamilton, finds the portal most useful during programming. โHaving constant access to the portal and training courses is very helpful as I can refer back to it when needed. I recently re-accessed the portal to review the sleep training courses, as I needed assistance with childrenโs sleeping practices.โ
โPersonally, I like having all of my certificates and training in one place. I have previously had issues with passwords and accessing different sites, so having it all in one place is great.โ
Kaitlin Lynch is an Educator at Petit ELJ Hamilton where she has accessed the LMS for training courses, general information and guidance as well as for her studies. โI also like having all of the certificates and training in one place for when I ever have need of it.โ
โBefore the LMS, accessing training through numerous different links and websites became confusing and it made it less motivating to go back to do more training. Whereas now, with it all in one place, it is much more efficient to access again and re-read relevant information.โ
โI recently used the portal to access the In Safe Hands training and to collate some information for my studies. Having all the training in the same portal where we can come back and access it for a variety of reasons assists me in making informed decisions about my practices.โ
Our LMS: An essential tool for continuous development and quality improvement
Our LMS is positioned to encourage a continuous learning culture. Still in its infancy, we are already seeing a remarkable improvement through the way it delivers information instantly and keeps our teams up to date with training and compliance.
โOur teams can access the LMS at any time, giving them access to our policies and procedures and additional professional development and learning resources that they may find useful,โ says Mathew. โFurther to this, it allows for the ability to rollout targeted training in areas where we feel there may be an opportunity for further growth.โ
โWe will continue to build on the current resources and the launching of different stages of the LMS over the coming months.โ
As a training and professional development tool, the LMS motivates all of our centre teams to learn, participate in reflective practices, and gives them a central place to manage their learning, growth and celebrate achievements. There are clear benefits for individual team members and the service as a whole which flows through to the education and care of our children, families and broader community.
Love learning? Join the Petit Early Learning Journey family
At Petit ELJ, our educators often share that they are always learning alongside the children and this is reflected in the way they approach childrenโs learning through intentional actions. Like our teams, we too are always learning alongside our teams, ready to listen, explore opportunities and work together to improve our practices.
Collaboration and bringing our team members together to discuss pedagogy is a form of professional learning that draws on our individual team membersโ wide range of qualifications and experiences. Are you ready to embrace learning that benefits others including children and families?
