Early Childhood Ireland’s Learning Hub

You have seen by now about the launch last week of Early Childhood Ireland’s Learning Hub. This new member benefit has the potential to save members hundreds of euros, as it provides up to €850 worth of high-quality online training, at no additional cost to members. For courses with a practical component, such as Manual Handling or First Aid there will be a moderate fee, which will be advised at the time of booking.  The range of courses is extensive:  

• Health and safety compliance topics such as Food Safety, Allergen Awareness and Fire Safety
• Personal development programmes such as time management, problem-solving, critical thinking, teamwork, organisation, effective communication and emotional intelligence
• Computer skills in areas like Cyber Security, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel.

This represents Phase 2 of the development of Early Childhood Ireland’s Learning Hub, Phase 1 has been the rollout of the COVID-19 Online Return to Work Training for all employees.

We asked one of our members – Margaret Garland, to share her experience of this ‘COVID-19 Online Return to Work’ training. Here is her story. 

My Name is Margaret Garland, I am the owner/manager of Smart Kids Creche & Montessori school. We are a small family-based creche on the northside of Dublin. Established in 1995 we cater for children aged between one year and 12 years.

Thinking back to March of this year and where we are now is so hard to believe. Lockdown was such a shock to everyone, but it gave us time to reflect on what is important in life and be thankful for what we have in our lives.

When we made the decision to reopen the creche again, there was a lot of work to do and documents to read up on to reassure the staff, parents and children that we would do everything possible to make our setting safe and child friendly to the best of our availability.

Early Childhood Ireland has always been a great support to my setting and when the email came in for the return to work training it was a great help and relief, that there was something set up for us to adapt and easily access. The training was very straight forward, we all understood it and it was very easy to follow but most important it put my mind at ease and even more important the staff felt safe and confident returning to work knowing what information they took from the training. It was easy to access and use and the content was extremely easy to follow and understand which is most important.

I think training online is very effective and you can do it in your own time and comfort without the added pressure of being in groups and mixing with people you are not familiar with, especially in this COVID-19 world.

So, to learn more about this fantastic member benefit click here.

If you have already completed the COVID-19 Online Return to Work Training you are already registered and all set and ready to explore this valuable Learning Hub, click here.

Phase Three will expand the number of courses on offer, so keep an eye out for that over the coming months!

Early Childhood Ireland’s Learning Hub is proudly supported by Skillnet Ireland.