Date of Award
5-1-1990
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
Mary Ellen Snapp
Keywords
advertising, certification expense, child care facility, child care training, children, employee evaluation, employee files, employee retention, early childhood education, early child care training, implementation, intergenerational program, neighborhood senior citizen center, paid employees, personnel management, policy and procedures, practicum, recruitment, senior citizens, staff certification, staff concerns, staff development, staff meetings, staff retention, staff turnover, teacher assistants, training requirements, turnover reduction, workforce stability, workplace evaluation, written documentation, employee training, human resources, organizational improvement, child care administration, aging workforce, community recruitment, employee support, retention strategies, workforce development, program implementation, personnel evaluation
Abstract
The problem addressed in this practicum concerned the high staff turnover rate in a small child care facility. The goal of the writer was to reduce the staff turnover rate and the staff certification expense. The solution chosen was to implement an intergenerational program in which senior citizens were hired as paid employees. These persons were recruited from a neighborhood senior citizen center following advertisement for two available positions. After recruitment, they worked with other staff members as teacher assistants while completing their training requirements. The training consisted of familiarizing themselves with the children and the center's policy and procedures. In addition, they were required to meet the state's training requirements by successfully completing six hours of early child care training. Evaluations were made after the seventh week of the implementation period to determine the amount of progress achieved and if the new employees meetings were scheduled regularly to address the concerns of all staff members and written comments were entered daily in the employee files. The success of this practicum experience depended on a decrease in the staff turnover rate resulting from the continued employment of the senior citizens throughout the implementation period.