Note: This Article is written for Vancouver, British Columbia, but the advice is applicable to all provinces in Canada.
Early Childhood Educator (ECE)/Assistant
To become an early childhood educator or early childhood educator assistant you need to register with the ministry of children and families. They require applicants to have a BC registered ECE (or equivalent from another Canadian province) to vouch for you having 500 hours ‘work experience’ with preschool-aged children, and may ask for an ICES (International Credential Evaluation Service) report in order to convert qualifications from other countries. If you’ve found a good centre that really wants to put the time into taking you on full-time they might help pay for some of this, though it’s not common.
Another helpful organization is ECEBC: https://www.ecebc.ca/. They are good at answering questions and supporting ECEs, though they cannot help you with any Ministry-related problems. There is a Job Board on this site for ECE-related work.
A quick place to find a list of all of the day cares in your area is by contacting the West Coast Child Care Resource Centre: https://www.wstcoast.org.
Nannies
If you are looking for work as a child minder or nanny there are two websites that would help you find a family: