Page 25 - BusinessWest June 10, 2024

Earning and Learning
Early Education Seeks Innovative Solutions to Attract a Workforce
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
“If people don’t want to work
in the early- education and childcare space, it prohibits others from going to work. Businesses are hiring, and people want to go to work, but they need a place for their children to be.”
Dawn DiStefano says early education is “not a career path for the faint of heart,” or something to just settle on.
But for the right person, she added, it can be highly rewarding.
“You’ve got to have the interest and skills and tenac- ity and heart to want to work with young children.
You can’t be, ‘there’s nothing else I want to do, so I’ll try my hand in childcare,’” said DiStefano, president and CEO of Square One, quickly adding that someone with those qualities she mentioned will find a field bursting with opportunity.
“If people don’t want to work in the early-education and childcare space, it prohibits others from going to work,” she said. “Businesses are hiring, and people want to go to work, but they need a place for their chil- dren to be.”
Recognizing challenges in the early-education
space, the state established what’s known as the Early Education and Child Care Task Force earlier this year, focusing on the essen- tial role childcare plays in driving the state’s economy and com- petitiveness — and, for that matter, the health and well-being of its families.
“Affordable, accessible, and quality childcare is a significant infrastructure needed in Massachusetts, and an imperative to drive the state’s economic competitiveness,” Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones said when the program was
Dawn DiStefano, seen here with a group of Square One kids, says early education isn’t a career for everyone, but those with the right mindset and heart for it will find robust opportunities there.
announced. “I look forward to working with my colleagues across government and with business and community partners to build a strong pipeline of early childhood educators and also enhance the system to encourage our untapped talent to fully participate in our
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