By Leow Si Wan

AN EARLY childhood education training institute aims to double the number of training places for preschool teachers to 1,000 next year.

This will meet half of Singapore's demand for 2,000 new childcare educators over the next three years.

Set up by the labour movement, the SEED Institute offers certificate, diploma and degree programmes. It will also offer 'bite-sized' courses for teachers so they can step up their skills without taking lengthy study leave.

The institute will also focus on research and spread best practices in teaching quickly across the industry, which now has 6,500 childcare teachers and 3,500 kindergarten educators.

The impetus to increase their ranks arises from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's announcement at last year's National Day Rally that 200 more childcare centres will be set up by 2013, bringing the total number to about 1,000.

SEED, launched at the NTUC Trade Union House yesterday, is so named to signify its role in seeding early childhood education here.

The idea for such an institute is not new. SEED started out in 1989 as the Regional Training and Resource Centre in Early Childhood Care and Education for Asia (RTRC Asia).

Its renaming comes on the heels of announcements of expansion plans by two bodies at the forefront of early childhood education here - the largest childcare chain NTUC First Campus and the largest kindergarten operator PAP Community Foundation (PCF).

First Campus will build 60 more childcare centres and employ 700 more teachers by the end of next year; PCF will open another 40 centres in five years.

NTUC secretary-general Lim Swee Say, speaking at the launch yesterday, said SEED will consolidate RTRC Asia's leadership position and make it 'bigger, better and faster'.

About $1.5 million will be put into it in the next three years to offer master's level scholarships at overseas universities to its faculty staff, now 22 strong.

Facilities-wise, SEED - located near the Singapore Art Museum - has been renovated and now has 13 classrooms, up from four previously, a bigger library and new study areas.

Those seeking admission will need at least three O-level credits for the certificate course. The most basic one will cost about $2,000 while a master's level course will cost $26,000.

Mr Lim said SEED aims to attract three groups - housewives looking to rejoin the workforce, mid-career professionals and fresh graduates.

Recounting an interview with a polytechnic graduate who gave up becoming a preschool teacher because of the low pay, he acknowledged that while the industry was paying better salaries now, it still had some way to go.

Polytechnic graduates, for example, can now draw $1,600 to $1,800 as childcare or kindergarten teachers, compared to $1,200 to $1,300 two to three years ago.

SEED's academic director Ho Yin Fong said the institute aims to develop confident professionals deemed deserving of attractive salaries.

She said that employers needed to look to various organisations for benchmarks, and noted that NTUC First Campus and PCF had recently raised their teachers' salaries.

NTUC First Campus raised its teachers' pay package by an average of 8.4 per cent this year; PCF last week announced higher starting salaries - at least $2,100 - for its teachers with a basic degree, while childcare teaching staff would get up to $300 more.

Ms Audrienne Leong, 25, an assistant teacher at a childcare centre, has signed up for a professional diploma course in early childhood care and education at SEED. She is looking forward to becoming a more competent teacher.

The former assistant fashion merchandiser, who took a pay cut of about $500, said: 'I am in this for the passion, and I am ready for lower pay, but with the demands of the job and the long working hours, pay is definitely a motivating factor.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.