Accelerated Early Childhood Education Degrees for Career Change

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Pur­su­ing a fast-track teach­ing degree in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion can be very reward­ing. It allows you to play a cru­cial role in shap­ing the future of chil­dren dur­ing their for­ma­tive years. 
• This career path offers a sense of ful­fill­ment and joy as you help chil­dren achieve impor­tant mile­stones and engage in cre­ative, inter­ac­tive learning.
• There is a sig­nif­i­cant short­age of ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tors, mak­ing it eas­i­er to find a job in this field.

Life in a cubi­cle can get quite dull, espe­cial­ly as all days look the same. Con­sid­er­ing that this has been your life­long edu­ca­tion, chang­ing your career to a dif­fer­ent indus­try might be out of the ques­tion. You may not like the desk job, but you like the domain and still find some joy in what you do there.

If you don’t want to change your indus­try but want to do some­thing a bit dif­fer­ent, a good alter­na­tive is to start teach­ing instead. To become an ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tor, all you need is a degree that proves you can pass that infor­ma­tion along. In this arti­cle, you will learn more about how accel­er­at­ed degrees can help you achieve that.

Relat­ed:

• Most Afford­able Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Degree Online Bachelor’s
• Best Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Bachelor’s Programs
• Fastest Online Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Best Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Degree Online Bachelor’s Programs

Why Consider a Career in Early Childhood Education?

Get­ting a fast-track teach­ing degree in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion can be high­ly reward­ing, espe­cial­ly if you like work­ing with kids. Chil­dren rep­re­sent our future, and by becom­ing ear­ly child­hood pro­fes­sors, we can help build the foun­da­tion for what is to be their life. Their brains are described as sponges around this time of life, so hav­ing some­one to teach them valu­able things will help them lat­er in life.

There­fore, ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion has a sig­nif­i­cant impact on a child’s life. As some­one fol­low­ing this path, you could expe­ri­ence a great sense of ful­fill­ment and joy as you are help­ing them get past their mile­stones. The pro­fes­sion of an ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tor also brings about a fair amount of cre­ativ­i­ty, as you’ll be engag­ing in plen­ty of inter­ac­tive games to stim­u­late fresh minds.

Con­sid­er­ing the cur­rent short­age of ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tors, find­ing a job in this niche would be easy. Elder­ly teach­ers are also expect­ed to retire at some point, open­ing posi­tions for the younger staff to fill. This gives you the poten­tial for a sta­ble career, espe­cial­ly when you achieve tenure.

Relat­ed:

• What Can You Do With An Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Degree?
• Tips for Suc­cess in Accel­er­at­ed Degree Pro­grams for Adult Learners
• How Do I Get an Accel­er­at­ed Bachelor’s Degree?

Challenges of Changing Careers

Many stu­dents can find going for a career in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion quite chal­leng­ing, all for var­i­ous rea­sons. Some may fear that adapt­ing to a new indus­try can be dif­fi­cult, espe­cial­ly after they’ve done some­thing dif­fer­ent all their life. Loss of senior­i­ty and the gap in skills could also feel intim­i­dat­ing, along with the finan­cial uncer­tain­ty of the poten­tial career change.

How­ev­er, many of these chal­lenges can be eas­i­ly over­come with the right sup­port sys­tem. For instance, if finances are your issue, you could look into ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion schol­ar­ships, often pro­vid­ed by the edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions them­selves. Most of these pro­grams offer coun­sel­ing ser­vices to make the tran­si­tion more man­age­able, and net­work­ing can also help sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Focus on the trans­ferrable skills you pos­sess, and even­tu­al­ly, the teach­ing habit will gain a more per­ma­nent posi­tion in your life.

What Is an Accelerated Degree Program?

Very often, the best way to tran­si­tion to teach­ing from a dif­fer­ent career is to opt for an accel­er­at­ed edu­ca­tion degree. Here, you can get your knowl­edge in a much short­er time, usu­al­ly around 1 to 2 years. The final length of the pro­gram depends on the insti­tu­tion and the num­ber of cred­its you need to grad­u­ate. Com­pared to the aver­age 4 years required to fin­ish a tra­di­tion­al degree, accel­er­at­ed options are bet­ter for career changers.

Course loads for these types of pro­grams are also more inten­sive, so you will focus on the core sub­jects. They build on exist­ing expe­ri­ence, allow­ing you to fin­ish your class­es faster. Very often, class­es take place in the sum­mer as well, allow­ing stu­dents to obtain their degrees faster.

Benefits of Accelerated Early Education Degrees

Get­ting an accel­er­at­ed ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree comes with sev­er­al advan­tages, includ­ing the following:

1. Faster Completion Times

The aver­age pro­gram for get­ting a bachelor’s degree takes 4 years to com­plete, dur­ing which you will have to attend day class­es. Unless you quit your job, this is like­ly not some­thing you can do, espe­cial­ly since you have bills to pay. The oth­er option would be to take a sab­bat­i­cal for a year or two to focus on your edu­ca­tion or use your sav­ings to sup­port yourself.

Enter accel­er­at­ed degrees that can sup­port your career change to teach­ing, as they allow you to get back to work faster. The aver­age pro­gram is com­plet­ed in around 2 years, but you can fin­ish in less time if you trans­fer cred­its or fol­low an even more inten­sive course. This way, you can apply for a teach­ing job faster than usu­al, earn­ing an income from your new career.

2. Cost-Effective

Com­pared to tra­di­tion­al pro­grams, one of the great­est accel­er­at­ed degree ben­e­fits is that they are rel­a­tive­ly cost-effec­tive. While the cost per cred­it is often sim­i­lar to the con­ven­tion­al route, you won’t need as many cred­its to grad­u­ate school. In many insti­tu­tions, the cred­it cost is less expen­sive since the infor­ma­tion is deliv­ered at an accel­er­at­ed rate.

Stu­dents should also keep in mind that accel­er­at­ed pro­grams have few­er semes­ters than tra­di­tion­al pro­grams. This means you won’t have to pay the tuition for 4 years, which can sig­nif­i­cant­ly help you in the long run. Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams also have com­pet­i­tive rates, and con­sid­er­ing that you will not have to pay much for trans­porta­tion and hous­ing, this can save money.

3. Flexible Learning Options

Per­haps one of the best parts of accel­er­at­ed pro­grams is that they offer accel­er­at­ed learn­ing options. You can go for in-per­son class­es, ful­ly online pro­grams, or even hybrid sys­tems. An online edu­ca­tion degree is often rec­om­mend­ed for those with tight sched­ules who can­not attend in-per­son classes.

With an accel­er­at­ed learn­ing pro­gram, you can join all the cours­es from home. Some even offer online lec­tures that you can access any­time, which is per­fect if you have a 9‑to‑5 job. Even if the insti­tu­tions have live class­es that fol­low a fixed sched­ule, many are held dur­ing evening or week­end hours.

Key Components of Accelerated Programs

Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams have some spe­cif­ic com­po­nents that make them rather unique. Let’s explore them below:

1. Focused Curriculum

Going for a career change edu­ca­tion path through an accel­er­at­ed pro­gram means you will also deal with a focused cur­ricu­lum. The core sub­jects depend on the pro­gram that you go for. That being said, rather than tak­ing 15 weeks to fin­ish the semes­ter, you should be done in around 8 weeks instead. You’ll be going through all the essen­tial sub­jects at a much faster pace, inte­grat­ing what you learn in real life.

2. Practical Experience

Unlike tra­di­tion­al pro­grams that focus on the­o­ry, accel­er­at­ed pro­grams place great empha­sis on prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence. Many of these cours­es not only offer hands-on train­ing, but also open doors for intern­ships, cap­stone projects, and field­work. This makes it eas­i­er for stu­dents to net­work and make their tran­si­tion easier.

3. Support Systems

Insti­tu­tions offer­ing flex­i­ble teach­ing degrees know that this pro­gram type can be rather chal­leng­ing. For this rea­son, many have cre­at­ed stur­dy sup­port sys­tems to help the stu­dents along. This includes aca­d­e­m­ic advi­sors, career plan­ning assis­tance, online resources, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for tutor­ing and mentorship.

Admission Requirements and How to Apply

Whether you are going for a teach­ing career for adults or ear­ly edu­ca­tion, you can expect there to be some require­ments upon admis­sion. Still, once you learn the nec­es­sary steps, get­ting into the pro­gram of your choice should not be very difficult.

Typical Early Childhood Educator Requirements

As an ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tor, you are expect­ed to bring a fair amount of paper­work and expe­ri­ence, just as you would for adult edu­ca­tion degree pro­grams. This can include the following:

• High school diploma
• Bachelor’s degree from a pre­vi­ous study program
• Min­i­mum GPA (often start­ing at 2.5)
• Stan­dard­ized test scores
• Per­son­al essay or statement
• Let­ters of recommendation
• Pre­req­ui­site cours­es for the spe­cif­ic program
• Expe­ri­ence in the domain you are plan­ning to teach
• Port­fo­lio (for art programs)

Bear in mind that all accel­er­at­ed learn­ing pro­grams may have their own pre­req­ui­sites. Do some research on the insti­tu­tion before you apply and see what they ask of you.

Step-By-Step Guide for Application

Once you have found an accred­it­ed pro­gram that fits your career and edu­ca­tion­al goals, you can pro­ceed with the appli­ca­tion process. Below are the gen­er­al steps that you will have to go through:

1. Pre­pare the required doc­u­ments (offi­cial tran­scripts, test scores, let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion, etc.)
2. Com­plete the appli­ca­tion form pro­vid­ed by the institution
3. Pay the required fees for both appli­ca­tion and tuition
4. Add the sup­ple­men­tal doc­u­ments to strength­en your application
5. Review the appli­ca­tion to make sure it is complete
6. Sub­mit the appli­ca­tion by the spec­i­fied deadline
7. Fol­low up for confirmation
8. Pre­pare for a poten­tial interview

The good news is that you can apply for more than one pro­gram and then choose your pre­ferred option. Once you do, noti­fy the insti­tu­tion of your deci­sion and com­plete your enrollment.

The Bottom Line

Chang­ing your career using an accel­er­at­ed ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree might be exact­ly what you are look­ing for to escape the cubi­cle life. It’s more inter­ac­tive, and you can still put your knowl­edge to good use. You just need to find the pro­gram that meets your career goals and helps you get a job fast.

Sources:

Uni­ver­si­ty of Chicago

Uni­ver­si­ty of Denver