Nargiz Mammadli and Emmanuel “Manny” Morando Neri both have a passion for teaching, and in particular, teaching young learners. Early Childhood Education Substitute Teacher Empowerment & Placement (ECE STEP) is looking to provide connections and training to help them pursue both.

With an eye toward careers in education, both Mammadli and Morando Neri said they have gotten a boost from resources provided by the nonprofit commonly known as ECE STEP.

“I was inspired to be a teacher when I was in third grade and I was 8 years old,” Mammadli said. “She was so nice I decided right then I wanted to be a teacher.”

Morando Neri expressed a similar enthusiasm for teaching younger children.

“I’ve always liked the idea of being involved in early childhood education,” Morando Neri said. “I can teach kids in early childhood education about social-emotional competencies. I can help children learn how to regulate and how to navigate through their emotions.”

ECE STEP launched a program in 2018 to help people gain skills and find posts as substitute teachers — and pave the way for permanent positions.

“We want to train, manage, empower and place teachers in early childhood programs,” said Sabrina Dong, an official with ECE STEP. “The whole concept is to address the shortage of teachers in the Bay Area. We bring in people with minimum experience as a teacher, and we support them all the way through the process. I am proud of the program. We are seeing a lot of success.”

At least 300 teachers have gone through the program, according to Dong.

“We fill staffing gaps,” Dong said. “It’s more than workforce development. The focus is also on teacher development and supplying the teacher pipeline. The goal is to transition our trainees so they can become permanent teachers.”

This sort of training program is essential at a time when qualified teachers are anything but plentiful, Morando Neri said.

“There’s an overall shortage of educators, but there’s also a shortage of educators who can address early childhood needs,” Morando Neri said. “A lot of educators are older, and because they are older, they have a more traditional way of teaching that doesn’t address social-emotional learning.”

ECE STEP also seeks to create a welcoming atmosphere that goes beyond the dry nuts and bolts of training sessions, according to Mammadli.

“They are more like a family,” Mammadli said. “They email me to see how I’m doing. They are paying $1,500 a year so I can take some units in college. I’m taking online classes from a school in Los Angeles.”

ECE STEP has been able to place teachers in an array of early childhood programs, according to Dong. These include Head Start, Early Head Start, and state-financed nonprofits that provide early childhood education.

Both Mammadli and Morando Neri said they have been able to teach at an Early Start program site in Concord after they went through the training program with ECE STEP.

The two teachers also aim to become entrepreneurs once they get enough teaching experience. Both want to go beyond being employed teachers and aspire to start their own daycare businesses at some point.

Officials at ECE STEP are concerned that the current system of finding substitute teachers, a process that’s usually done under pressure of last-minute teacher absences, is outmoded.

“Early childhood educators are often at the mercy of last-minute phone calls and Rolodexes when trying to resolve immediate teacher shortages,” states a pamphlet by ECE STEP.

ECE STEP believes a tech-powered approach is an important solution to the scramble to find substitute teachers.

“The STEP program replaces these clunky measures with an intuitive app that allows childhood educators to book a teacher with the push of a button,” ECE STEP states.

Morando Neri and Mammadli each said they have been quick to form bonds with the young children they are teaching.

“On my first day of shadowing at a program, the kids would run to me, try to hold my hand, and one wanted to play tag,” Morando Neri said. “All the others were the same way.”

Mammadli also believes she is able to provide the children with more than just early childhood teaching.

“I think I have a special bond with the kids,” Mammadli said. “I can give them a comfort space. I love to be part of their lives, and to hear the stories they make up, and to experience the giggles and the hugs, and all of that.”