FAQs
Q. Who can apply for bursary funding?
A. Non-profit, registered charitable agencies in British Columbia are eligible to request funding to provide professional development (outside of their regular programming) for any child care professional in their community. This includes those working in the British Columbia in the following roles:
- Early childhood educator
- Early childhood educator assistant
- School-age child care provider
- Licensed family child care provider
- Registered license-not-required child care provider
- Care providers who have completed the Responsible Adult course
- Head Start of Strong Start educator
- Child development professional
Q. When is the closing date for applications?
Q. What training expenses are eligible for bursary support?
A. Agencies may use bursary funds to reduce the following costs:
- Registration fees
- Resources for participants
- Speaker/Facilitation costs
- Catering costs
- Facility rentals
- Personal child care: (maximum of $100.00 per day)
- Travel and accommodations for participants – Travel and accommodation costs are prioritized for those who are living in rural or remote areas of the province, for whom travel costs represent a significant barrier to accessing professional development opportunities.
Q. What types of professional development will be funded?
A. Training that is informed and guided by the concepts and principles of the B.C.’s Early Learning Framework, the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework, or the Métis Early Learning Framework.
Q. How will I know if our agency’s professional development application has been funded?
Q. How will I know if our professional development application is not funded?
Q. Who decides who gets funding?
Q. Do you accept applications from outside the Lower Mainland?
A. Yes, we encourage agency applications from rural & remote communities in B.C.
Q. Do you accept applications from agencies supporting First Nations, Métis and/or Inuit child care providers?
A. Yes, we encourage applications from agencies supporting First Nations, Métis and/or Inuit child care providers.
Q. If our agency receives bursary funding, what are the reporting responsibilities?
A. Reporting requirements are outlined on the application form and include the collection of statistics such as number of people who attended, postal codes of participants, Indigenous status of participants, and any comments from participants about the professional development experience.
Q. Is there an appeal process if funding is not approved by the Bursary Manager & the panel of professionals?
A. Unfortunately, no. We will, however, try to indicate why funding has been denied and offer alternative ideas.
Q. Can my agency apply for funding if we have received funding from another source for the same professional development
A. Yes, if there are no limitations from other funders.
Q. What is the "turnaround time" between when an application is submitted and when a decision is made?
A. The processing time for applications depends on the situation. For large funding requests it may take 1-2 weeks. For funding requests for workshops, one day events, communities of practice the processing time takes 1-5 days.
Q. Are bursary funds released in advance of the training event or after the training event has happened?
A. Funds are released to the agency before the event occurs unless the agency requests the funds to be sent after the training event.