Our Managing Director, Michael French, joined FIVEAA to talk about our win at the 2026 South Australian Training Awards, why we believe practical training in the workplace produces job-ready educators, and why South Australia’s early learning sector needs more people.
As heard on FIVEAA – conversation with Leith Forrest
Born from frustration
We didn’t begin as a training business. Our founders have run early learning centres for more than 20 years, and we grew frustrated with the job applicants coming through our doors. Training quality was slipping, and with it the practical skills new educators brought to the floor.
Much of the sector’s training had moved online and into virtual classrooms. As Michael explained on air, that shift misses something essential.
“If you learn in a classroom changing a doll’s nappy, that is an experience. However, that is a very different experience to when you’ve got [a baby] who you’re trying to actually engage with and develop a relationship with, and talk them through a procedure that’s going to be calm and welcoming for them.”
So we rebuilt the model around practical skills, learned in real workplaces with real children.
Recognised by the sector
We were named Small Training Provider of the Year at the 2026 South Australian Training Awards. For our team, the win validated an idea we had backed for years.
“We took an idea a few years ago of what we thought needed to be done for our own services. To see that bear fruit and mature, and go well beyond our own services now, and really start to impact, particularly regionally.”
Regional communities had struggled with the absence of in-person training, and our model brought it back to them, with our trainers travelling across the Yorke and Mid North regions. In 2025, our enrolments grew by almost 20 per cent and our completion rates doubled (SA Skills Commission).
Our award submission needed letters of support from independent parties, and not one declined. After the win, unsolicited messages arrived from former employees. “It really gives you that lift,” Michael says.
Support makes the difference
What sets us apart is the support we give our students.
Before ELC Training existed, students in our own centres were stagnating, taking years to finish an 18-month qualification. Their trainers might not see them for months at a time. The workplace sat at arm’s length from the training organisation, so even as their employer we could not properly support staff who were studying.
So we flipped that. Our training happens in the workplace, most of our students are employees, and our trainers stay in regular contact with each centre about what every student needs. We’re on site at least every four weeks, and usually every one to two weeks.
“Instead of a one size fits all, it is one student we adjust to.”
Some of our students want to move quickly and others prefer a slower pace. Some need extra coaching or different assessment methods, and our trainers adjust to suit. Regular contact also lets us notice when a student starts to drift. That matters, because educators can work while they study but must actively progress towards their qualification. Before we changed the model, we had faced letting staff go because the support simply wasn’t there.
What our partner centres gain
Because our trainers spend so much time on site, the benefits reach well beyond individual students.
A second set of eyes on the team. We meet with site leaders every fortnight. We see the wider team as well as our students, so we can flag where professional development would help. “There’s a lot on the plate of a childcare director who’s trying to run that site,” Michael says. Team training can easily fall off the list when there are fifteen urgent issues to solve, and our regular visits keep it front of mind.
Help with workforce shortages. Every early childhood qualification includes a placement in a live work site. Most placements are supported only by the workplace, so centres usually take just one or two trainees. With our trainer on site, more students simply means more of our time there.
Instead of a placement student who is a volunteer and cannot be counted as working with the children, our partner centres gain a team member who is being trained and supported. That helps offset the staff shortages many services face.
Far more than babysitting
Before the turn of the century, many people saw childcare workers as babysitters. Michael recalls still pushing back on that view in forums with government in 2011 and 2012. Expectations of educators have grown steadily since.
In our own centres, we brought teachers into the younger age groups at a time when the norm said a child did not need a teacher before age four. Our reasoning was simple: babies learn more in their first twelve months than at any other time in life.
The workload on educators has grown too, and some of it can pull them away from the core job of engaging with children. Our courses focus on getting that balance right.
“Your core task is still with those children, and your ability to create those relationships with them is paramount.”
South Australia needs more educators
Our profession is short of people, particularly with the three- and four-year-old preschool rollout under way. Regional communities feel it most, and that is where much of our work happens.
“When the capital’s being committed to develop a new centre, that’s great. But you need the workers. So what if you’ve got a building, if you haven’t got the people to actually work with the children?”
Our message to anyone considering the career is that it is enjoyable and fulfilling, and it suits people at any stage of life. You can move into early childhood at 20, 30, 40 or 50.
The condition is quality training. Textbooks teach information, but they do not teach you how to build relationships with children or how to read when something is about to go wrong.
“Find yourself an RTO, hopefully us, but find yourself an RTO that’s actually going to train you practically in the workplace. That’s going to give you that key set of skills that you will not get if you’re just doing it in a classroom or online.”
Start your career in early childhood
Thinking about a career in early learning, or looking for a training partner for your centre? Book a chat, and one of our team will be in touch to talk through where you want to go.