Early Childhood Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE) 2025, Parents’ Edition
Hello! Is your child considering becoming an early childhood educator? As a parent, are you looking to learn more about early childhood courses and the career prospects after graduation? Keep scrolling to learn more!
NIEC was set up by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to uplift the quality of early childhood training. We provide a full range of courses for early childhood educators at every stage of their career.
Additionally, we work closely with the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) to ensure our training reflects the latest early childhood practices and meet the sector evolving needs!
Why Should Your Child Join the Early Childhood Sector?
1. Rewarding and Meaningful Profession
Early childhood educators are in the privileged position to be one of the children’s first teachers. During the critical developmental period in their early years, a child’s brain undergoes rapid growth, making this time particularly impactful for learning. As such, early childhood educators play an immensely vital and meaningful role in nurturing young minds, imparting essential life skills and values. This helps build a strong foundation for their learning!
2. Promising Pathways
The government has implemented initiatives to support the growth of the sector, creating opportunities for both career and educational progression. During ECDA’s Early Childhood Celebrations 2024, Minister for Social and Family Development, Masagos Zulkifli shared that close to 40,000 new infant and childcare places will be developed from 2025 to 2029 (November 2024, ECDA). This expansion would mean your child can enjoy employment opportunities and job security in the sector.
ECDA has also announced the expansion of career pathways in the early childhood space. This includes leadership, learning support or early intervention roles. Click here to find out more about the career pathways.
Upon Graduation
Your child will be awarded a certificate by NIEC and the Polytechnic/ITE, making them eligible for teacher certification by ECDA.
Here’s what your child can expect for their starting salary*:
(*Below is an indication of the expected gross monthly salary ranges for EC educators in Anchor Operator (AOP) centres by 2024.)
Job Role
2024 Estimated Gross Monthly Starting Salary Range
Preschool Educators
From $2,900
Infant & Early Years Educators
From $2,600
3. Further Studies
As graduates of our diploma programmes, students will be eligible to apply for full-time degree programmes offered by the Autonomous Universities (AUs) or overseas universities. You may find the full university accreditation list here.
Moreover, we provide a full range of courses for early childhood educators at every stage of their career. Even after graduation when they are working as an educator, they can continue upgrading themselves through our post-diplomas or continuing professional development courses!
Our Courses and Campuses
We conduct our early childhood courses in collaboration with ITE College Central, Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) and Temasek Polytechnic (TP). Click on any of the courses below to find out more!
- NIEC (NP) & NIEC (TP) campuses: Diploma in Early Childhood Development & Education (N96 & T68)
- NIEC (NP) campus: Diploma in Tamil Studies with Early Education (N95)
- NIEC (ITE) campus: Higher Nitec in Early Childhood Education (V42)
Both NIEC (NP) and NIEC (TP) offer the Diploma in Early Childhood Development & Education and students get to choose the following specilisation track in their 3rd year*.
- NIEC (NP) campus: Early Intervention or Mother Tongue Language Teaching – Chinese or Tamil Track
- NIEC (TP) campus: Visual Arts or Mother Tongue Language Teaching – Malay Track
*Subject to prevailing terms and conditions.
Our students get to enjoy dual identity where they are both students of NIEC and the polytechnic/ITE college they are in. Let’s find out what life as a NIEC student is like at our campuses!
At NIEC, we offer quality training to develop confident, competent early childhood educators who are work-ready, self-directed, and reflective practitioners. Watch to learn about the skills and knowledge your child will gain by graduation!
Read about our Class of 2024 graduates’ journey and accomplishments at NIEC below!
Our lecturers have more to share too!
I teach a drama module that involves various drama strategies they can apply in the classroom. I give my students roleplay scenarios to help them fully immerse themselves in the strategies. For example, I give some students the role of a teacher doing a dramatic reading of a storybook to their children! This helps them better understand the process of each strategy.
Visual arts have always been a vital area for children’s holistic development in critical thinking, openness to new experiences and creativity. These are 21st-century competencies for a new world we face today. As we train students to be early childhood educators, it is important for them to harness the interest in the visual arts, so that they can create an encouraging and creative environment for children and be the nurturing educator alongside children.
How Can Your Child Apply?
Mark your calendar! Your child can apply after receiving their O-Level results from 10 January 2025, 4pm to 15 January 2025, 4pm (Tentative), via the JAE portal. Here’s how:
- Ensure that your child meets the minimum entry requirements for the course(s) they want.
- Indicate our courses as a choice into the JAE-IS.
- Your child is strongly encouraged to list Diploma in Early Childhood Development & Education at both campuses (i.e. course codes N96 and T68 for NIEC’s Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic campuses respectively) in their choices!
The release of posting results will be on 4 February 2025, 9am and the acceptance of offer will happen around end February 2025. For more information about JAE, visit the Ministry of Education (MOE) website.
Ask Us Anything!
If you have any questions, reach out to us at contact_niec@niec.edu.sg
Wishing your child all the best, and we look forward to welcoming them to NIEC soon!
