THE NTUC First Campus Cooperative will open 50 more childcare centres over the next two years. This works out to about one new centre every two weeks.

Enrolment capacity will also increase by 50 per cent from the current 9,000.

This was announced yesterday at the My First Skool childcare centre at Bedok North Street 3, at a celebration of the cooperative opening 100 childcare centres.

These come under three core brands: My First Skool, TheLittle Skool-House International and The Caterpillar's Cove.

To meet the manpower needs of the new childcare centres, NTUC First Campus will recruit more than 700 early childhood education professionals in the next two years.

It will also set aside $2.5 million for academic upgrading and staff training next year.

Mr Lim Boon Heng, executive chairman of the NTUC Social Enterprise Development Council, said in his speech that with scale, NTUC First Campus can bring down unit costs and will be able to invest in curriculum research and teaching methods.

By 2013, NTUC First Campus expects 95 per cent of teachers at all its childcare centres to have a diploma or be in the course of getting one. And most principals would also be expected to be degree holders.

New centres are being planned for Ang Mo Kio, Sengkang and Jurong, where demand is high.

This article was first published in The New Paper.