Centres, TAFE 'doing all we can' in face of Wagga childcare crisis

Inspire Learning Centre Kooringal has the capacity to care for 234 children after a recent renovation, however centre director Nicole Wishart said it runs at less than half the capacity to make sure they meet staffing ratios.

While her centre is able to manage with their current staffing numbers, she knows that other businesses might not be as fortunate.

"Parents need to understand that centres, they are struggling, and this isn't just Inspire, everyone is struggling with the demands," she said.

"Then you've got parents who ring you saying 'I need my child in, I've got to back to work, I need to make money', and we get all of that, we wish we could help everybody, but we can't do it to the detriment of current families that are here.

"If the government or somebody could do more to entice people into the sector, then you will find more centres will open up more spaces and operate at capacity, which will then actually fix the demand for childcare."

Ms Wishart wrote to various politicians to see if government can address the staffing shortage in the industry, including Michael McCormack.

The Riverina MP was impressed by Ms Wishart's submission, forwarding her submission to federal early childhood education minister Ann Aly.

"I'm happy to work with Anne to try to bring about some comfort to this facility and others as well, because obviously it's not just Wagga," Mr McCormack said.

"Even though Wagga Wagga has a number of these sorts of facilities, it's hard to get placements, it's hard for the operators to find staff, to retain staff.

"It's really tough on parents as well who are trying to juggle their work, trying to get their children off to childcare and making everything work smoothly.

"It's across the board, it is becoming difficult to recruit staff, it is becoming difficult to retain staff, and anything we can do to help in that regard has got to be seen as a good thing."

Kellie Waters is the team leader for early childhood education and care at TAFE NSW and looks after the bachelor of early childhood education and school-based education in the southern region of NSW, which includes the Riverina.

She helps to facilitate the teaching of early childhood studies by offering face to face and virtual learning for students to get their certificates and diplomas as they start their careers in the industry.

"We know that we had over 100 [students] enrolled in the south region at the beginning of the year for the part-time day course, and we had over 100 in the part-time evening course," Ms Waters said.

While she has noticed a slight overall decrease in enrolments in recent years, Ms Waters believes the change to virtual courses is stronger than it has ever been.

"We wouldn't have had 100 or 200 enrolled in these virtual deliveries in the past," she said.

"I'd love to have 600 enrol, but I can't make people enrol. I do things with the school counsellors to get this out to our school students so that they often progress in through that career."

Ms Wishart said she would rather try be part of the solution instead of doing nothing and is happy to take on the next generation of early educators.

"I've got a number of school-based trainees here now ... we're trying to upskill as many people as we possibly can," she said.

Inspire Learning Centre and Ms Wishart are helping facilitate young educators in the early stages of their careers, hoping to be part of the solution.

"We're trying to do what we can for the Wagga community, not just serve the childcare side for parents, but set it up that the educators want to work in this profession," she said.

"You pay them well, you treat them well, they are going to want to stay, but they also come away with a qualification."

Ms Waters agrees that retaining workers may be beyond the education sector's reach, questioning if it's a matter of pay which is turning newcomers away.

"From an education side, we're doing all that we can to try and get those people into the sector," she said.

"If anything could be looked at in terms of those salaries - and I'll keep that very broad - to increase those, I think we'll see more people staying in the sector or coming in."