We have been accepted as a member of the European Commission Education and Training 2020 (ET2020) Working Group on Early Childhood Education and Care. The working group is tasked with exploring ways to improve social inclusion and promote the professionalization of staff within the Early Childhood Education and Care systems throughout the EU Member States.

Among other things, ISSA was chosen for its broad membership and network-base within and beyond the European Union, therewith its ability to share knowledge and practices and to gather results and feedback from a broad range of Early Childhood Education and Care experts.

‘We are both honored and pleased to join the ET2020 Working Group,’ says Mihaela Ionescu, ISSA’s Program Director, who will be representing ISSA in the working group. ‘It is a great opportunity to expand and deepen our knowledge, and to contribute with our expertise and experience to the two themes in focus. Both have been and are at the core of ISSA’s programmatic work and we are glad to see that they are also on the European policy agenda’.

The Working Group will comprise representatives of ministries and experts from all EU Member States that are involved in policy development in Early Childhood Education and Care. Other participants of the ET2020 Working Group are Eurochild, Alliance for Childhood, EASPD, Eurocities, EPSU, Eurofound, EFEE, Eurydice and ETUCE.