The Pathway Program (Pathway) program is a comprehensive and aligned professional development trainer and training system for the state’s early childhood education (ECE) workforce. It provides an accessible avenue of professional development, particularly for Family Child Care (FCC) and other Home-Based child care providers. It also provides consistent standards for trainers and promotes professional development training to support early childhood professionals with finding and choosing training opportunities. Additionally, Pathway enables offering and tracking training in early childhood education topic areas aligned with the California Department of Education Early Childhood Education Competencies. It was first launched in Los Angeles County in 2010 as the Gateways for Early Educators™ (Gateways) and has been integrated with the California Early Care and Education Workforce Registry since 2016. The program is now being expanded, and renamed Pathway, as an option for other counties to implement towards a statewide system and accessible professional development pathway.
The Pathway Trainer Approval process gives trainers the opportunity to showcase their experience and formal education background in early childhood. This process also allows trainers to demonstrate their knowledge of adult learning principles, their experience presenting workshops and training sessions to diverse adult learners, and early childhood professionals. Trainers must also display knowledge of the CA ECE Competencies and how their trainings are in alignment with the twelve competencies. Trainer approval is required of trainers who are interested in conducting trainings for any one of the CCALA member agencies.
The Pathway program provides opportunities for ECE professionals to participate in professional development training toward the goal of completing a “Pathway.” It also enables offering and tracking training in early childhood education topic areas aligned with the California Department of Education Early Childhood Education Competencies. A Pathway can be obtained by completing approved training in each of the 12 Competencies or by completing a series of trainings toward a Specialization Pathway. Additionally, the Pathway program provides consistent standards for trainers and promotes professional development training to support early childhood professionals on the professional development journey.