Recruiting Males in the Early Years

Early Childhood Care and Education is one of the most important and valuable professions anyone can enter; however, males make up less than 2% of the workforce in NI. For a number of years, Stranmillis University College has identified as a priority the need to increase the number of males entering the profession. We feel it is important to recruit men into the sector and we wish to cement its significance for Universities and Colleges, Government and policy makers, Schools, Early Childhood Care and Education Providers and stakeholder organisations, so that they target and prioritise the issue of gender imbalance in the workforce. 

To  address the issue, on Wednesday 14^th September, 2022, the Early Childhood Studies department hosted a virtual webinar entitled ‘Males in the Early Years’.

The event, organised and chaired by Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, Dr Barbara McConnell, featured a keynote address from Dr David Brody, Associate Professor of Education and former Academic Dean and Chair of the Early Childhood Department of the Efrata College of Education, Jerusalem. This was followed by shorter presentations and discussion from Ms Pauline Walmsley (CEO, Early Years organisation), Dr Joanne McHale (TU Dublin), Mr Conor McArdle (Surestart, South Armagh) Mr Kevin Duggan, Childcare Partnerships) & Stuart Dickinson (Stranmillis University College).

Speaking after the event, Dr McConnell said “Since the conception of the ECS degree in 1996, with the first cohort’s graduation in 2000, we have had 2116 Graduates from Stranmillis with a BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies degree, but only 23 of these graduates have been male. This is a very low number, and it is something that we have been thinking about in Stranmillis for a number of years. The Early Childhood Studies team at Stranmillis are really keen to encourage more Males onto the degree, and ultimately, into the sector and we look forward to working with Colleagues who attended the webinar to progress this issue.”

“Following the success of this webinar I hope we can come together as a group of academics, practitioners, training providers and employers, to put together an action plan to address this very important issue. We were delighted that the event reached capacity and that we had over 100 delegates on the webinar. This interest is testament to the need to action this issue and we at Stranmillis will be considering how we can play our part to increase the number of males working in the sector.”

If you would be interested to find out more about the BA (Hons) ECS Degree, or wish to get involved in recruiting more males into the sector, please contact Dr Barbara McConnell; b.mcconnell@stran.ac.uk.

A recording of the seminar is now available to watch here.