Career Advising Guide: Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center

What is the Career Advising Guide?
The Career Advising Guide is a collection of brief explanations of the different options for professional development in the early childhood field in Vermont. It also includes information for afterschool professionals, some of whom work in the early childhood field. The Career Advising Guide includes some of the newer options for professional development, and also the options that have been available for some time. It is important to read the web sites included that describe the options that interest you.

Who is this Career Advising Guide for?
Professionals in all aspects of the field of early childhood education, as well as their advisors and mentors, will benefit from the information presented in this Career Advising Guide. The information supports the professional development and career advancement of those professionals who are relatively new to the field, as well as those with years of experience. It is for individuals seeking to grow their own professional skills, as well as for those who advise others.

Who are early childhood and afterschool professionals?
Early childhood professionals work with young children (birth through age six) and their families. They work in a variety of settings, and many of these are pictured in the Career Lattice included in this Career Advising Guide on page 4. In different settings, early childhood professionals may be called teachers, child care providers, interventionists, or many other titles.
Afterschool professionals work with school age children and/or youth in any context. An afterschool professional may be just entering the field, or may have years of experience working with children and youth. They may work with children and youth one day per week or full-time.

We use the title professionals because we recognize that the work demands skilled, experienced, well-educated, dedicated workers: true professionals.

Why do we need the Career Advising Guide?
The Vermont Guide to Early Childhood Careers was originally published in 1998 through a joint effort of leaders in the field of early childhood in Vermont. There have been many changes since then that have influenced professional development, including the launch of the Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center. Early childhood professionals need a guide that explains these updates in an easy-to-understand way.

Afterschool professionals likewise will benefit from a future document, as the main focus in this particular Career Advising Guide is early childhood. Expect revisions and new documents in the future as the afterschool education field continues to create pathways for professional advancement, including opportunities and materials specifically for afterschool professionals

What is professional development?
Many people immediately associate professional development with training. It is this and more. The current Vermont Early Childhood Program Licensing Regulations (2001) define professional development activities as “interactive developmental activities…[that] include but are not limited to workshop training sessions, course work, site visits to other programs, mentoring sessions, lectures, presentations, or acting as a member of an assessment team for compliance to regulations.”

Professional development is also an approach to our work that values learning and that continually challenges us to become more skilled as professionals. This is a commitment that lasts as long as we work in the field of early childhood education.

How can you use the Career Advising Guide?
Early childhood professionals can read it on their own to find out more about professional development and career advancement opportunities. They can locate themselves in the career levels and learn about the options for going to the next level by taking advantage of existing opportunities. They can turn to the career lattice and compare job settings.

Advisors, mentors, and supervisors may use it as a tool to help other early childhood professionals identify their pathways to career advancement.

To read more, download the full Career Advising Guide for Early Childhood Professionals document at the top of this page!