HS gathers experiences of how the shortage of workers is reflected in the day-to-day life of kindergartens.
from Helsinki more than 50 percent of qualified early childhood education teachers are still missing. So more than 1,300 professionals.
About a thousand of these teacher positions are filled, for example, by a nanny without teacher training. In September, almost three hundred positions were unfilled, which means that the work was practically done by changing short-term substitutes.
The information obtained from the city’s information systems is not completely accurate or comparable to previous years.
From Espoo and From Vantaa a total of one thousand early childhood education teachers are exhausted.
Situation becomes even more difficult.
In Helsinki, especially children under the age of three, an increasing number end up in daycare. In addition, an increasing number of employees will reach retirement age, and the stricter personnel requirements of the Early Childhood Education Act will enter into force in 2030.
For these reasons, Helsinki calculates that it will need an additional 1,720 sociologists and teachers by the end of the decade.
Good ones too there is news.
This fall, Helsinki did not have to close its playgrounds to transfer staff to kindergartens. Short-term substitutes for kindergartens have been better received.
“The atmosphere is calmer. It’s as if you’re used to living with a staff shortage. Work in kindergartens is perceived as meaningful and it also brings joy every day,” says the director of early childhood education Miia Kemppi.
About teachers there is still a bad shortage, even worse of special early childhood education teachers.
In September, there was an average of less than one application for open positions per position. Of course, it is the most difficult time to find teachers, when the kindergarten year and many employment relationships start in August.
There are only about a hundred positions for early childhood education social worker in Helsinki. There are few applicants for them, but the job title is also new.
There have been a lot of people coming to the babysitters’ places in the fall. I am especially interested in the rapid aid teams, i.e. Helsinki’s own team that provides substitutes for sudden situations. On the other hand, when a nanny is filling in for a teacher, the nanny is often replaced by someone unqualified for that role.
This year, Seure, which arranges temporary workers, has also been able to provide substitutes for Helsinki’s needs better than last year.
in Helsinki the number of children in kindergartens is increasing. In 2030, two out of three employees must be highly educated.
This has been prepared for by gradually changing, for example, when a nanny retires, positions become teacher or social worker positions. In many other municipalities, these changes have been postponed due to staff shortages.
Kemppi says that the crisis will not be solved by Helsinki alone, nor by the actions of the state.
“A broader discussion about education policy has begun. It is very important that funding for training places in the field, and especially multi-modal training, is permanently guaranteed.”
Helsinki has also long developed apprenticeship training to become a nanny. Through work trials, for example, those who have just arrived in Finland from Ukraine can get training.
Recruitment has been distributed in a new way. The daycare managers hire permanent employees, but a dedicated team hunts for labor for shorter periods. Work well-being and management are being developed.
Last year, the city paid small salary increases to nannies and early childhood special education teachers as part of its salary program aimed at shortage sectors. As a result, the task-specific salary of the early childhood education teacher was not affected, it is now 2,952 euros.
A salary program is also coming to next year’s budget, but it has not yet been decided to whom the money will be distributed.
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