How to Plan a Professional Development Day for Childcare Staff

Hosting a professional development day for your childcare staff is a great idea. This workshop gives staff an opportunity to expand their skills, knowledge and collaboration with colleagues. All of which contributes to the quality of care they provide.

With that said, the planning and organizing of a professional development day can be overwhelming. But don’t worry, here are a few tips to help your team walk away with ideas they can use right away.

Start With Clear Goals

Starting by setting clear goals is much easier than setting an agenda as they are the foundation that everything else is built on. Keep them practical and tied to licensing requirements, program development or staff development priorities.

It is also great to get some ideas from your staff. With the professional development day being for them, get their insight into topics they may be interested in. This can help you better structure your agenda.

Choose Topics That Matter

The topics discussed on the day are crucial. A successful professional development day should cover both compliance and classroom qualities. With your goals in mind, consider topics around upcoming initiatives and challenges staff need support in.

Here is an example of topics:

• Leadership development
• Emotional learning
• Health and safety
• Classroom management
• Behavior guidance

Create an Agenda Staff Can Follow

A smooth professional development day means that your staff can follow along without getting confused. Your staff should know what to expect. Be sure to share the agenda ahead of time so everyone can arrive prepared and ready to participate.

It’s always a good idea to break your day into shorter sessions instead of long presentations that can feel like lectures. This keeps your staff engaged and makes content easy to absorb.

Include Different Learning Formats

Much like children, adults learn in different ways too. Include a mix of different training formats throughout the day. For example, guest speakers, demonstrations, group discussions and hands-on activities, all allow your staff to digest information and stay interested.

Make Time for Team Building

Professional development days shouldn’t only focus on training. Instead it should also focus on helping your staff build stronger relationships and trust.

Keep things simple with activities like icebreakers or group problem solving exercises. Both get your staff to feel comfortable and communicate with each other. Which is exactly what you want when running a childcare center.

Turn Training Into Action

Encouraging your staff to share one or two ideas they want to implement is a great way to turn the training into action. Now because this will be shared at the end of the day, simply ask them for realistic goals.

This allows you to get feedback and ensures that the training was effective. For added guidance be sure to check in with observations, feedback and team discussions.

Sample Professional Development Day Schedule

Final Thoughts

A successful professional development day gives your staff the opportunity to strengthen skills, build staff relationships and leave with practical ideas that can be put into action. Focusing on relevant topics allows you to create an environment that's best for learners, staff and your childcare centre overall. Collecting feedback from staff can be a great resource for improvements to use for your next professional development day.