Continuing Education

ufv.ca/ce

Family Child Care certificate

The Family Child Care certificate program provides training for people who want to provide care for young children in a home setting. People who are currently providing child care are also welcome to take the program.

Because of the variety of child care arrangements being offered in the community, this program provides training for family child care providers as well as nannies and parent aides. These are the people who provide care in a home-setting for small groups of young children.

Program goals

• To increase the number of present and potential family child care providers.
• To increase the skills and knowledge of providers.
• To raise public awareness and the expected standard of quality.
• To encourage providers to create a network and climate of professionalism.
• To promote continued professional development through knowledge in the area of readings, organizations and other information available to other early childhood educators.
• To bridge the gap between formal and less-formal child care providers and arrangements.
• To provide prospective employers of parent aides or nannies with a training opportunity as a condition of employment.
• To achieve a common professional understanding of liability arrangements and legal concerns in terms of care for young children.
• To provide a laddered educational program with transferability to the ECE certificate program.

Entrance requirements

Participants in this program:

• Need to be able to read and write at a post-secondary level
• Need to be in good physical and mental health.
• Must have a keen commitment to working with young children.

Students will need to arrange for time in which they can observe a variety of family child care settings.

Note: Completion of this program with grades of C+ or better in all courses will be considered as six credits of advanced standing toward an Early Childhood Education certificate. Successful completion will also result in preferential admittance into the ECE program for qualifying applicants. It will also result in a letter of Licensing Board equivalency to enable one to work as an assistant in a childcare setting.

When to apply

Applications are accepted on a continuous basis throughout the year. Qualified applicants are considered for the next intake in which there is space. See Continuous application process for more information.

How to apply

Students may usually register two weeks prior to the course start date. Consult the UFV Continuing Education booklet for course start dates and the program head for more information.

Note: Registrations will be received as long as space is available.

Fees and additional costs

Please see the Continuing Education webpage for current fee details.

Program outline

In addition to classroom instruction and observations, students will be required to read and study outside of class approximately three hours per week. Guided observations require four hours per course. Each course is 21 hours of instruction, plus four hours of guided observation.

Family Child Care students are welcome to attend workshops and seminars as available through Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia, or UFV.

Evaluation

Assignments will be given during each course. Participants will also be required to maintain a journal and resource file throughout the program.

Undergraduate continuance

Students enrolled in undergraduate courses (courses numbered 100 or above) must maintain an undergraduate Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of at least 2.00 to remain enrolled in Good Academic Standing at UFV. Students in Good Academic Standing will have no registration limits placed on them. Failure to meet the minimum CGPA requirement will result in restrictions on registration and may eventually lead to academic suspension from undergraduate studies at UFV. Students on Academic Warning or Academic Probation are limited to registering in 10 credits. For further details, see the Undergraduate Continuance section of the academic calendar. Academic standing is governed by UFV’s Undergraduate Continuance policy (92).

Contact information

Contact Continuing Education at 604-851-6324, or 604-504-7441 local 6324, or toll-free (within Canada) 1-888-504-7441 local 4626, or continuingeducation@ufv.ca.

Course listings

For complete details on courses see the course descriptions section.