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The Caring Support Blog

All About Early Childcare Assistants (ECA)

March 22, 2023

What Is an Early Childcare Assistant (ECA) job?

For children between the ages of birth and twelve years old, early childhood educators design, coordinate, and carry out programs. Under the supervision of early childhood educators, early childhood educator assistants look after infants and children from preschool through grade school. Children are led in activities by early childhood educators and assistants to foster and develop their intellectual, physical, and emotional growth as well as to assure their safety and well-being. They work at kindergartens, daycare facilities, agencies for children with special needs, and other places that offer assistance in early childhood education. This unit group consists of early childhood educators and assistant supervisors.

What Is A Early Childcare Assistant, (ECA) Responsible For?

Early childhood educators are normally responsible for: 

Assistants to early childhood educators are in charge of:

Early Childcare Assistant

ECA, Early Childcare Assistant Job Skills

Early childhood educators and assistants must have skills in Service and Care Help, like cleaning and keeping a house or shop, taking care of daily needs, cooking, preparing, serving, protecting and enforcing, treating people and animals, counselling and nurturing.

In addition to being able to provide excellent service and care, you must also have strong communication skills. The ECA can assist in a variety of communication-related tasks, including interviewing, promoting and selling, advising and consulting, highly qualified communicating, teaching and training, dealing directly and collaborating, and finally, negotiating and assessing.

When it comes to information handling, other important abilities include processing information and managing information.

Inspecting and testing, analyzing information, examining and diagnosing, planning, researching and investigating, and managing projected outcomes are all part of the ECA skills for analysis.

The management skills section places a primary emphasis on the following areas: supervising, recruiting and hiring, coordinating and organizing, evaluating, distributing and regulating resources, guiding and encouraging, and planning and implementing.

How To Become A ECA in Canada?

The following is essential information for those interested in becoming assistants to early childhood educators.

Before you are allowed to begin working, an authority may require you to first obtain a professional license from them. Depending on the field of work, obtaining a license may either be required or entirely optional.

Before you are allowed to use a professional designation or practice a profession for which a license is required, you must first become certified in that profession.

If obtaining a license is optional, then you do not need to be certified in order to engage in this line of work.

Early Childcare Assistant (ECA) Salaries in Canada

The national average income for an ECA in Canada is around $33,150 per year, which equates to an hourly wage of around $18. The starting salary for entry-level employment is $29,000 per year, but professionals with more experience can make up to $40,000 per year.

On the other hand, given below are some of the regions in Canada along with their respective average salaries for early childhood assistants.

Read More: Early Childcare Assistant Salaries In Canada

Early Childcare Assistant salary
Source: Government of Canada Job Bank. Note: Last updated on November 16, 2022.

The Future Of ECA Jobs

Childcare facilities, preschools, community centres, and parks and recreation departments are common places for recently graduated individuals to find employment. They could be employed as early childhood educators (ECEs), early childhood education assistants (ECEAs), support workers for children who require additional assistance, or people who run before- and after-school programs.


ECAs have the opportunity to become ECEs if they pursue further education. ECEs with experience have the ability to oversee programs within agencies or become the executive director of an organization. Some operate private child-care facilities. Those with a higher level of education have the opportunity to pursue careers as child care directors, infant development consultants, supported child development coordinators, administrators for early childhood education centres, or early childhood education instructors at colleges and universities. Some people may decide to get the training necessary to work as educational assistants with children of school age.

Where Can I Work As An Early Childcare Assistant (ECA)?

Listed below are some of the companies where you can work as an early childhood assistant and their locations: 

  1. Little Galaxy Childcare Inc.- Brampton
  2. KIDZ CAVE ACADEMY INC - Langdon
  3. Learning Jungle - Markham
  4. TRTFN - Atlin
  5. Toor's Childcare Inc. - Abbotsford
  6. Elder Tree Montessori - Orangeville
  7. Maple Child Care Centre Inc. - Maple
  8. Freedom Childcare Centre - Victoria
  9. Newstead Child Care Center - Richmond Hill
  10. Osoyoos Child Care Centre Society - Osoyoos
  11. Kamloops Kidz Early Learning Center - Kamloops
  12. Little Owl Academy Ltd. - Kelowna
  13. Brainiax Inc - Edmonton
  14. Elrose ABC Family Centre Inc. - Elrose
  15. Junior Einstein's Academy Ltd. - Surrey
  16. K M School - Brampton
  17. Wee Care Educational Services Inc. - Burlington
  18. Golden Child Daycare - Golden
  19. EduKids Child Care Centres - St. Thomas - Whitby
  20. Red Apple Day Care Centre Inc - Abbotsford

Also, apart from working as an early childhood educator assistant, you can also be one of the following:

  1. Consultant in educational matters
  2. Practitioner of educational programs in mental health
  3. Family support worker
  4. Primary school teacher
  5. Special educational needs coordinator (SENCO)
  6. Special educational needs teacher
  7. Teaching assistant
  8. Social and youth worker
  9. Children’s counsellor 
  10. Community development worker
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Early Childcare Assistant (ECA) In Canada For Immigrants

Did you know that teaching and helping young children is one of the most popular jobs in Canada? Early childhood assistants are in high demand in all 11 of Canada's provinces and territories. If you're thinking about making Canada your new home, you can choose from a lot of ways to move there, as well as a lot of jobs.

As we've already talked about, if you are an experienced early childhood assistant, you can migrate to Canada and have a good chance of getting a job in any of the country's 11 provinces. You can find these job openings in:

  1. Alberta
  2. British Columbia
  3. Manitoba
  4. New Brunswick
  5. Newfoundland and Labrador
  6. Nova Scotia
  7. Ontario
  8. Prince Edward Island
  9. Quebec
  10. Saskatchewan

Over the next few years, it is expected that 21,000 new jobs will be made because of growth and the need to replace workers. Another 28,000 new jobs will be made for graduates and newcomers who want to live and work in Canada.

How to Write an Ideal Resume for Early Childcare Assistant (ECA)?

Your resume is one of the most important parts of your job application. This document shows your most important skills, experiences, and qualifications when applying for jobs in early childhood education.

1. Choose the format for your resume 

There are a few common ways to format a resume, and the one you choose will often depend on how much experience you have. A chronological resume puts the most important information about your work experience at the top and lists your roles and responsibilities from most recent to least recent.

2. Read the job description thoroughly

Before you write your resume, read the job description to make sure you know what the employer wants. Highlight words and phrases from the job description and use them in your resume to show that you are a good fit for the role.

3. List your contact information

When you put contact information at the top of your resume, hiring managers will find it easy to get in touch with you.

4. Highlight your qualifications

This part of your resume near the top is meant to get the attention of hiring managers and make them want to learn more about you. A resume summary is a statement, usually made up of two to three sentences, that shows off your level of experience and your best early childhood assistant skills, traits, or accomplishments.

5. Provide your work experience

When you talk about your past jobs, list them from most recent to least recent. Give the job title, the place where you worked, and the dates you worked there.

6. Think of your relevant skills and have them listed

Use the job description to figure out which hard and soft skills to list in the skills section of your resume.

7. List all your education qualifications

Your education section shows that you meet the needs of possible employers. For example, people who work with young children usually need to finish an Early Childhood Assistant program or have a bachelor's degree in a related field, like child development. List your degrees and the names and locations of the schools that gave them to you. You can also list any licenses or certifications that are important.

Even though all of these seem like they would take a lot of time, you don't have to worry because Caring Support has a free resume builder that makes everything else easy and quick. You can pick and choose because it can also be made accessible and customizable for you!

About The Author
Arielle Rosales
Content Writer

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