Career Lattice

Ways to Grow

How the Career Lattice is helping early care and education professionals on the path to success.

The Goal   |   The Need   |   The Solution   |   The Lattice

The Goal   Statistics show that there is a high rate of turnover in the early care and education field. However, research also shows that offering training opportunities for career advancement will help to recruit and retain staff. The Career Lattice allows early care and education professionals to choose their own path––inspiring them to continually develop their professional abilities. As a result, individuals who take the initiative to increase their education and training may be rewarded with increased compensation and the satisfaction of knowing that they are providing children and families with the best care possible.

The goal of the Career Lattice is to:

• Ensure that all early care and education practitioners are well prepared to educate, nurture, and meet the needs of young children and their families 
• Unify training requirements 
• Identify common core knowledge and skills needed by practitioners 
• Provide a basis for credentials and degrees 
• Establish a clear pathway to success 
• Recognize a practitioner’s professional achievements within his or her program and community

The Need   Illinois is committed to developing a comprehensive professional development system and to implementing initiatives that stabilize the early care and education workforce. To meet that goal, Illinois needs:

• A fully articulated system to identify the core knowledge, skills, and prerequisite qualifications for the roles and levels in the early care and education field 
• Standardized qualifications, education, and training requirements and regulations for various program funding sources and workplace settings
• An easier way for current practitioners, and those entering the field, to earn increased education and better pay, and to move within our education and training system 
• Solutions for articulation issues, such as:
  • Clock-hour training that “counts” toward college credit 
  • Courses that transfer and “count” toward the next level
  • A coherent system of assessment of prior learning

The Solution     Providing a framework for offering multiple opportunities for growth, the Career Lattice helps to illustrate the many career pathways and options for professional preparation and movement. Designed to support and inspire early care and education professionals to continually improve the quality of care to children, the Career Lattice helps to:

• Effectively link credential and degree programs and community-based training entities
• Identify core knowledge and skills within the training and education programs that are required by different types of employers 
• Facilitate smooth transitions through the educational system so that students can attain meaningful credentials, degrees, and employment
• Encourage the development of articulation agreements that support a continual pathway for transfer of education credits
• Enhance public recognition of early care and education practitioners as professionals § Provide a consumer education tool for parents
• Encourage efforts toward increased compensation

The Illinois Career Lattice   Retaining qualified people who have a passion for working with children and families—that is the goal of the Illinois Career Lattice. Uniting individual practitioners, programs, and early care and education agencies and organizations to share resources in innovative ways will inspire practitioners to continue to do what they do best.

The Illinois Career Lattice consists of six levels.  Learn more about the Core Knowledge Areas that support the Career Lattice.