Education and Training

Pursuing an early childhood education degree involves taking coursework that teaches you how to teach to the developmental level of young children. This includes learning how to create lesson plans that will help move young children to the next level of their educational career. These lesson plans generally focus on play and hands-on-teaching techniques that are both fun and educational for the children.

Employment Opportunities

A person with an early childhood education degree may pursue a career as a preschool teacher, kindergarten teacher, or daycare worker.

All three of the career paths a person with an early childhood education degree may choose from involve many of the same duties. Language and vocabulary development is encouraged through rhyming games, storytelling, and acting games. Social skills are encouraged through working together in the classroom and science and math are built upon with active play. In kindergarten, however, academics become a greater priority and phonics, letter recognition, numbers, and awareness of nature are encouraged. On the other hand, a day care worker may not focus on learning as much as a pre-school teacher as the primary purpose of a day care worker is to keep the child safe and cared for in the absence of the parents.

Job Outlook and Salary

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment opportunities in all three of the areas a person with an early childhood education degree may pursue are expected to grow about as quickly as the average occupation. The Bureau reports that those working as a day care worker in May 2004 earned a median hourly wage of $8.06. Preschool teachers earned a median annual salary of $20,980 that same year, while the median annual salary of kindergarten teachers ranged from $41,400 to $45,920.

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