King's College year 11 student Eliana Veenstra is studying a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education at South West TAFE, as part of the Vocational Education and Training Delivered to Secondary Schools (VETDSS) program.

Eliana, 16, said she loved spending time with children and was enjoying the one day-a-week practical placement at the King's College onsite kindergarten.

The Warrnambool teen is now considering a career in early childhood.

"I really enjoy it," Eliana said. "It's nice to work with the kids and to go home and feel like you've accomplished something."

Some of her roles include setting up activities, helping them wash their hands, applying sunscreen and making sure they have their hats on and playing with them outside.

King's College assistant head of senior school Kath Haworth said Eliana would receive one unit credit towards her VCE as the practical placement came under the certificate's Structured Workplace Learning banner.

As part of the two-year course requirement, Eliana will gain experience with babies at another childcare centre in the holidays.

Eliana is one of more than 120 students undertaking early childhood courses and traineeships at South West TAFE's Warrnambool, Portland and Hamilton campuses.

More than half those are due to graduate this year. Thirty five are already employed and completing traineeships at centres, leaving 28 graduates to help fill the staff shortages across the region.

SWTAFE early childhood teacher Kate Williams said its trainee numbers had increased over the past year and the Certificate III in Early Childhood Education VETDSS program, introduced in 2022, was "booming" with 55 year 11 and 12 south-west school students.

She said a lot of students were employed by centres while doing their placement and many had jobs before completing the course.

Ms Williams said both private and council-run centres in Warrnambool City Council, Corangamite, Moyne and Glenelg shires had employees completing SWTAFE traineeships.

"Our trainee program's been really successful and that's because centres have needed staff on the floor now, or yesterday," Ms Williams said. "We're really busy in our trainee space."

Ms Williams said while centres couldn't fill all of their advertised trainee roles, they were offering "more traineeships than ever before".

Early Childhood Education and Care Certificate III and diploma courses are free at SWTAFE as part of a state government program to address Victorian skills shortages.

Its diploma course is now held online at night, with some weekend workshops, to enable students to earn and learn because short-staffed centres needed them.

She said educators cared for "our most precious members of our society" and greater recognition and award conditions would encourage more people to pursue the career.

"The early years is proving more and more how important early education is," she said. "We're seeing that evidence, we understand it better. We recognise early education plays a big part right through your life, through school and into adulthood. It is a really important industry."

IN OTHER NEWS

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.