The Nevada Registry Career Ladder

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The Nevada Registry

Nevada Registry Career Ladder

What is the Professional Career Ladder?

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The Nevada Early Care and Education Professional Career Ladder helps professionals plan their training, education and career development goals.

Purpose
		Historically, Early Care and Education (ECE) has not been viewed as equal in importance to other fields of study and has not traditionally been viewed as a profession. In order to begin to professionalize the field of ECE, there must be a system in place that supports ECE as an established professional education system. The Career Ladder is that system… The ladder is based on what national research shows about the importance of specialized training in ECE and the correlation between formal education and quality environments for children. The ladder views the field of Early Childhood Education as a distinct and separate body of knowledge and area of specialization.

Structure
		The Career Ladder is specific to the field of Early Care and Education and consists of 7 levels representing various combinations of formal education, training and direct experience (up to 4000 hours). The entry levels of the ladder are somewhat informal and become increasingly more formal with a greater emphasis on formal education and training in ECE as a person advances along the continuum. The ladder is designed so that anyone in the field of Early Care and Education can be placed on it regardless of whether that person has just graduated from high school and has been employed in the field for 6 months or whether the person is a college professor teaching ECE courses. The ladder is designed to promote mutual respect, cooperation, and equal importance among all roles and settings. For this reason, it is a person's level of education and specialized training in ECE that determines his/her placement on the Career Ladder as opposed to his/her job title.

Benefits
		The Ladder provides a formalized way to recognize the professional development of all ECE practitioners.

		The Ladder helps to further professionalize the field of Early Care and Education. Professionalization requires active participation of the field and requires collaboration with family, community, government, work force, and educational systems.

		The Ladder provides a system that will help our state track the education and training level of our child care workforce.

		The Ladder provides a structure that can eventually be linked to wage increases and wage supplement programs.

		The Ladder incorporates 8 Core Knowledge Areas that can help you make purposeful and balanced decisions about training.

		A specialized Career Ladder provides you with a roadmap for achieving your educational and professional goals. The Career Ladder supports you as you increase your training and education to improve the quality of care for all children. By providing a clear picture of where you are now on your career path, you’ll know exactly what is needed to advance to the next level.