Childcare Workers
Skills & Knowledge
Most Important Skills for Childcare Workers
- Being Aware of Others—Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Helping Others—Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Monitoring Performance—Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Understanding How People Learn—Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Coordinating with Others—Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Learning New Things—Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Listening—Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Making Decisions—Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Reading—Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Speaking—Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Most Important Knowledge Areas for Childcare Workers
- Customer and Personal Service—Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Education and Training—Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language—Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Psychology—Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Computers and Electronics—Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Public Safety and Security—Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
- Clerical—Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
- Administration and Management—Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Sociology and Anthropology—Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
- Mathematics—Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Interests
Different careers may be a good fit for your personality or interests. This career is:
- Social—Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
- Artistic—Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.
Learn more about your interests. Take the MnCareers Interest Assessment.
Describe Your Skills
People who have worked in this career typically perform the following tasks.
These statements can help a prospective employer understand what you can do, on a resume or during an interview.
- Helping and caring for people.
- Making decisions or solving problems.
- Thinking creatively.
- Communicating with supervisors, co-workers, or people that work under you.
- Collecting information from different sources.
- Organizing, planning, and prioritizing work.
- Resolving conflicts or negotiating with people.
- Creating and maintaining interpersonal relationships.
Careers that Use Similar Skills
The following careers use skills, knowledge, and abilities that are similar to those used for Childcare Workers.
View more careers in the Human Services cluster
View more careers in the Early Childhood Development and Services pathway
This page includes information from the O*NET 24.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Source: You can learn about our data sources in the About Us section.