THIS STUDY INVESTIGATED WHETHER final-year early childhood education students' aspirations for professional leadership roles, and positive perceptions of themselves as leaders, improved through engagement in a university course requiring reflection on service learning leadership projects, and leadership and advocacy literature.

To put 'joined up thinking' into action, in 2011 the South Australian Government established the Department for Education and Child Development (DECD), reforming services offered to young children and families by bringing together responsibility for child protection, child and family health services, education and child care. To facilitate such integrated approaches to supporting early childhood development, Mustard (2008) recommended: The universities should establish education programs for all staff working in early child development in order to ensure that they have a common knowledge base about experience based brain development that is relevant to their work (p. 7). The University of South Australia's (UniSA's) course 'Brain development in the Early Years' (henceforth referred to as 'the course') is a response to this recommendation. Neuroscience can be used to improve early childhood

IT HAS BEEN ARguED that a key strategy to improve developmental and educational outcomes for young children is to increase the number of childcare staff with early childhood university degrees (Saracho & Spodek, 2007). In order to upgrade the qualifications of staff, a number of Australian universities provide pathways that enable graduates of early childhood diploma programs to complete a degree. Several impediments, including institutional structures and individual contextual and personal factors, may affect these pathways. Although a range of organisations offer diploma programs, TAFE (Tertiary and Further Education) is a major provider. The aim of the present study was to investigate student transition between early childhood programs in TAFE and university. The research drew on several data sources, including a survey of the perceptions of students at various points of undertaking the transition. The current credit arrangement for TAFE Diploma graduates was found to be satisfactory; however, gaps were identified between the TAFE and university teaching and learning arrangements with regard to curriculum structures, teaching styles and assessment. Graduates of both programs considered that the completion of both awards would have a positive effect on their careers.

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