13 Arizona Early Childhood Career and Professional Development Network Guide Teachers; paraprofessionals; family home providers; caregivers; and professionals working directly with children can use the competencies to: Workforce knowledge and competencies may be used in a variety of ways: Assess their skills, strengths, knowledge, and abilities Identify their learning needs and areas for growth Create professional development plans Provide staff members with an orientation into the early care and education field Develop job descriptions Develop salary scales Track professional development growth Assess strengths, challenges, and learning needs of early care and education professionals Support individuals in creating professional development plans by tracking, in the professional development report, the trainings they take. Early care and education professionals can then determine what the next level of training or courses they should take to continue their progress through each competency. Home Visitors can use the competencies to steer their practices with families. Directors, administrators, mentors, coaches, and others who provide support to early childhood professionals can use the competencies to: Evaluate and refine course content Plan for future course development Coordinate and design course content to facilitate a seamless pathway between community colleges and universities. Professional development instructors, professional development organizations and professional development sponsors can use the competencies to: Align competencies with training objectives Utilize competencies when creating new training objectives Design and organize professional development opportunities Provide trainings that span the indicator levels early care and education professional to progress through each core knowledge area Develop and implement policies that will enhance professionalism in the field Connect stakeholders around common goals Serve as an advocacy tool for guiding policy makers Create a framework for a career development system which will support professionals in pursuit of competency-based training/education, recognition, and compensation commensurate with educational achievement College or University faculty, staff, and administrators can use core competencies to: Federal, state, and local agencies can use competencies to: Professional development system building efforts can use competencies to: