Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood Education (Consecutive Diploma/Degree) is a four-year program that leads to both an Early Childhood Education (ECE) diploma from George Brown College and a Bachelor of Arts Early Childhood Studies degree from Ryerson University.

As a student in this program, you will spend the first two years earning your ECE diploma at the Sally Horsfall Eaton Centre for Studies in Community Health, located at George Brown's Ryerson Campus (co-operatively managed with George Brown), and the latter two years completing your Early Childhood Studies degree at Ryerson University.

This program offers some distinct advantages:

• College-level tuition fees for the first two years, rather than higher university fees
• Classes with George Brown College faculty who are national leaders in applied ECE
• Practical training at one of George Brown’s 12 child care lab schools located across the Greater Toronto Area
• Direct entry into the third year of the Ryerson degree program.
• Expanded career scope and direction by earning both a diploma and degree in ECE.

Learning Outcomes

The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

1. Create learning contexts to enable, build and maintain caring, responsive relationships in partnerships with children, families and communities that value and respect social, cultural and linguistic diversity including Indigenous peoples' worldviews and Francophone identity.
2. Co-create, facilitate and reflect upon inquiry and play-based early years and child care programs and pedagogical approaches to support children's learning, holistic development and well-being following children's capabilities, interests, ideas and experiences.
3. Co-design and maintain inclusive early learning environments to value and support equitable, accessible and meaningful learning opportunities for all children, their families and communities in a range of early years and child care settings.
4. Collaborate with children, families, colleagues, agencies and community partners to create, maintain, evaluate and promote safe and healthy early learning environments to support independence, reasonable risk-taking and healthy development and well-being.
5. Use observation strategies to identify children's strengths and challenges and to ascertain when children and families might benefit from additional support or community resources.
6. Use professional communication in interactions with children, families, colleagues, employers, the regulatory body, government authorities and children's service agencies to meet legal and ethical standards of the early years sector.