Okanagan College receives funding to develop early childhood educator training

OKANAGAN – An Okanagan College project to help train early childhood educators has received a grant from a national foundation.

The Lawson Foundation invests in childhood development and recently announced $2.7 million for projects across Canada. The Okanagan College project, led by Dr. Beverlie Dietze, will receive $195,000.

Dietze is the director of learning and teaching at Okanagan College. She and her team will be developing a training program for early childhood educators in outdoor play for children. Included in the project are faculty from Lethbridge College in Alberta and Northern College in Ontario.

“Our aim is to provide the tools and necessary knowledge about outdoor play, discovery and learning that will encourage those teaching our children to make it a priority in their programming,” said Dietze in a media release.

The program is directed towards 400 early childhood educators working in B.C., Alberta and Ontario.

In the release Dietze said research shows a lack of “accessible and affordable” training in children’s outdoor play.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Brendan Kergin at bkergin@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.