Students who finish the course may also work for community agencies and family support programs, such as Head Start, that serve children and their families, she said. Ultimately, children reap the benefit of more people becoming professionally educated care givers, Baptiste said. New Mexico and the nation have a shortage of qualified people to care for young children, she said. By 2010 the United States will need 600,000 early childhood educators. Loui Reyes, an NMSU college assistant professor of curriculum and instruction who teaches the certificate course in Spanish, noted that changes in society are affecting children.
Some parents seek child-care services for a few hours while they work out at their health club.
Others work two jobs or double shifts and need places for their children to stay for extended periods of time, he said. Many children are cared for in unlicensed, unregistered homes where caregivers have no training. As part of the certificate course mentors encourage students to move up the career lattice and earn associate's, bachelor's or graduate degrees. Marc Pruyn, an NMSU assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, is beginning to conduct research to find out what students gain from the course and how to improve it. He began by gathering information from students who were taking the course in Spanish.