Training child care personnel in rural areas

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the needs of child care personnel in rural areas and to describe the various approaches used by Mount Saint Vincent's Department of Child Study to implement pre- and in-service education programmes for these caregivers. The Department of Child Study has offered child care training programmes in rural and remote parts of Atlantic Canada and in two countries in the Caribbean. Factors which affect the development of preschool distance education programmes, including the special local conditions which determine the selection of the most appropriate model, are presented.