The Opportunity

Early Learning Indiana is the state’s oldest and largest early childhood education nonprofit with a mission to ensure all Hoosier children have the skills they need for success in kindergarten and beyond. The organization operates high-quality early learning centers, supports families in connecting to quality child care, helps improve program quality and advocates for greater access to early educational opportunities for all Indiana families. Like providers across the country, Indiana providers have struggled for many years to manage the increasing demand for high-quality early care and education (ECE) with a talent pipeline that simply cannot keep pace. When they couldn’t find an existing solution to solve this talent shortfall, Early Learning Indiana took a proactive role and engaged with Mapt Solutions to create a solution.

Our Approach

Mapt used national findings around the growth and effectiveness of apprenticeship programs to help Early Learning Indiana build an innovative ECE workforce preparation program, including supporting the design of instructional frameworks, course content and participant assessments, as well as the development of educational media materials. What resulted was a 13-week Classroom Support Work-Based Learning program, featuring a competency-based learning experience that combines online instruction with real-classroom application to empower professionals to grow their practice and become more effective in their role, all while earning a wage-stepped salary that increases along with their skills.

What’s Next

Early Learning Indiana continues to pilot and refine the program while planning for a statewide program in order to address workforce shortages around the state.