Early years teacher
Also called nursery teacher, preschool teacher, kindergarten teacher
Early years teachers instruct students, primarily young children, in basic subjects and creative play with the aim of developing their social and intellectual skills in an informal way in preparation for future formal learning. They create lesson plans, possibly in accordance with a fixed curriculum, for an entire class or smaller groups and test the students on the content. These lesson plans, based on basic subjects, can include the instruction of number, letter, and colour recognition, days of the week, categorisation of animals and transport vehicles etc. Early years teachers also supervise students outside the classroom on school grounds and enforce rules of behaviour there as well.
What you'd do
Early childhood educators · ILO- Planning and organizing individual and group activities designed to facilitate the development of children's motor skills, cooperative and social skills, confidence and understanding
- Promoting language development through story-telling, role-play, songs, rhymes and informal conversations and discussions
- Leading children in activities that provide opportunities for creative expression through the media of art, dramatic play, music and physical fitness
- Observing children in order to evaluate progress and to detect signs of developmental, emotional or health related problems
- Observing and assessing nutritional health, welfare and safety needs of students and identifying factors which may impede students' progress
- Supervising children's activities to ensure safety and resolve conflicts
- Guiding and assisting children in the development of proper eating, dressing and toilet habits
- Discussing progress or problems of children with parents and other staff members and identifying appropriate actions and referrals to other services
- Establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships with other service providers working with young children
- Indoors
- On your feet most of the day
- Constant contact with people, including the public
- Good freedom to decide
- Often more than 40 hours a week
- Deadlines most weeks
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Yes, good prospects12 EU countries are short of early childhood educators now, but fewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
About averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,700 a month (Hungary) to €9,900 (Luxembourg), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among professionals in the EU, women earn 21% less per hour than men. Professionals · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Usually a degreeA degree in education science is the usual route.
823 institutions in the EU offer education bachelor's degrees. Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.21 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 9 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for early childhood educators. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).