When Lynne No started working at the Little School at Duke in 2017, a teacher leaving the preschool was a big deal. “It just didn’t happen,” she said.
But after the pandemic, child care centers lost federal funding, and many educators left the industry in search of higher-paying jobs. No stopped teaching to become a full-time recruiter for the school in 2021.
Child care providers across Durham have struggled to hire and retain teachers in recent years, the INDY previously reported. Eighteen percent of the state’s child care sites closed between 2019 and 2026, and Durham lost 21% in that same time period, according to state data.
Durham-based child care nonprofit Early Years is trying to help fill the workforce gaps by partnering with Durham Technical Community College to create an abbreviated path to an early childhood education credential that qualifies students to be lead teachers. The Early Educator Academy combines EDU 119, an introductory class, with health and safety training and the opportunity to shadow teachers at child care centers.
The program is offered at no cost to participants, and the first four cohorts completed it in six weeks. (The next section of the program will last eight weeks to align with EDU 119’s usual course length.) On graduation day, Durham Tech and Early Years host a job fair, shepherding students into the workforce.
“These academies have really just opened up a lot of opportunities for people who want to go into early childhood, but then also for the schools that have been dealing with a lot more turnover in the last few years,” No said. She’s hired one academy graduate since the program started in 2025.
Officials in North Carolina and elsewhere have highlighted short-term credentials as a way to get people into much-needed jobs quickly. But the Early Educator Academy is still small. The four cohorts so far had roughly 20 participants each, and only about half of the graduates currently work in early childhood educator roles, Durham Tech education department chair Cathy Collie-Robinson estimated. And even with the credential, child care is not a high-paying profession.
“There is a gigantic need in the community to attract individuals to this profession,” Collie-Robinson said. “So we really wanted to see if the academies would be one way to get folks interested in working in early childhood.”
Little School teacher Fatima Ramirez completed the academy in the spring and got hired right away. Ramirez, 21, had been working as a nanny for several years but never thought she’d be able to afford college.
“I just couldn’t believe it was real, to actually continue my education and keep doing what I like doing,” Ramirez said.
The first cohort of the Early Educator Academy, held in summer 2025, was funded by Early Years, and the other three received state funding. Early Years and Durham Tech have committed to hold the program at least three more times. The General Assembly allocated $1.5 million in its last budget for the academies, but it hasn’t been distributed yet, so Early Years is relying on outside fundraising for now, the nonprofit’s president Kristi Snuggs said.
Eighty-four percent of participants have completed the academy, according to Collie-Robinson, who taught one of the cohorts. She said roughly 30% of graduates are currently looking for work.
Some students who complete the program but don’t immediately get hired in the field are self-employed as nannies, and others have yet to transition from their current careers to child care, Snuggs said. Some have young children, and they need to work at a facility with an available seat for their child. (No said she’s had to turn away applicants who graduated from the academy for this reason, as waitlists at the Little School’s sites in Durham and Hillsborough can be years long.)
Durham Tech would have to offer many more academies to meet workforce demand, Collie-Robinson said. As of 2024, 60% of child care providers in North Carolina faced staffing shortages.
About 200 people applied for each of the cohorts, which have been limited to about 20 seats due to staffing and funding capacity. The bilingual format drives some of that demand, Collie-Robinson said. One of the three state-funded programs was offered in English, one in Spanish, and the third in both languages.
Maggie West, Early Years’ workforce support program manager, said having educators who can teach young children in their native language not only bolsters their learning experiences but allows educators to better engage families.
“We have just huge demand from Spanish-speaking educators, and I think across the community there’’s a real desire for more workforce development programming that builds in language access, and that has been a huge recipe for success in this program in particular,” West said.
West said most students in the Durham Tech academy are adult learners, with a median age of 32. Some come from careers in other industries like food service or manufacturing, while others were early childhood educators outside the U.S. and want the North Carolina credential to boost their pay. Collie-Robinson said the mostly online model allows students who work full-time to take the course.
In addition to helping students enter the child care workforce, the Early Educator Academy is designed to open doors for continuing education. Once students graduate with their lead teaching certificate and are hired as teachers, they are eligible for an apprenticeship program that includes a full scholarship for an associate’s degree in early childhood education.
Ramirez is working toward additional credentials through the apprenticeship program, and she’s taking one class per semester to balance school with her new job. She said she hopes to one day be a mentor to new teachers and open her own bilingual child care center.
Early Years’ apprenticeship program is the largest in the state, West said, with 40 people currently registered and 16 graduates since the program began in 2023. In 26 child care centers that partner with Early Years, teachers receive a mentor and professional development support as they navigate both their degree and teaching career.
“I hear a lot from our apprentices that just never thought college was going to be an option for them, for lots of reasons, but in particular for financial reasons,” West said. “And they certainly didn’t imagine that they could go to college while also working full-time.”
More credentials also lead to higher wages. The average hourly wage for early childhood educators in North Carolina is about $14, but West said academy graduates make between $17 and $18. Still, a living wage in North Carolina is about $22 per hour for someone with no children.
Public funding for workforce development programs is generally geared toward high-wage industries. The Workforce Pell Grant rolled out by Congress in July limits scholarship eligibility to courses that bring students into jobs where they will make at least 150% of the poverty level.
Despite the low wages, some aspiring teachers choose child care for the predictable work hours compared with other industries, West said, especially for teachers with young children. Teachers also sometimes can get a free or discounted seat for their own child. And for the most part, teaching is a passion-driven industry, West said.
At the Little School, No said teachers get paid a living wage with benefits, which she acknowledged is rare in the industry. But she said wages are still a “stumbling block” with retention, as she’s seen teachers leave for other industries that pay more.
“The academies serve this role of getting people in, and then if they decide they really enjoy it, and this is what they want to do, then they support them to continue their education in early childhood,” No said. “And the more classes people take, the more committed they’re going to be to the career.”
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