Qualified for What Future? Policy-Led Professionalisation and Pre-Service Teachers’ Career Intentions in Hong Kong Early Childhood Education

Policy-led professionalisation in Hong Kong early childhood education (ECE) has strengthened qualification requirements and quality assurance, yet qualified graduates’ views of career viability remain insufficiently understood. This study examined stated career intentions and anticipated work conditions in reflective essays by 161 final-year pre-service ECE teachers. The assessed Chinese-language assignment asked students to apply Herzberg’s two-factor theory to their career intentions. Theory-informed qualitative content analysis retained its motivator–hygiene distinction while developing context-specific categories from participants’ explanations. Most participants, 129 (80.1%), intended to enter ECE; 30 (18.6%) did not, and two (1.2%) were uncertain. Achievement in supporting children’s learning, professional growth, responsibility, and recognition were prominent anticipated motivators. Workload, long working hours or job pressure, remuneration, and employment security were the principal hygiene concerns. Within this cohort, non-intenders more often described intrinsic rewards as difficult to attain and employment conditions as inadequate or uncertain. These prompted accounts connect the appeal of professional ECE work with expectations about its practical viability. They raise a policy question concerning workforce sustainability: how might qualification-focused professionalisation be accompanied by employment conditions that prospective educators regard as commensurate with their preparation and responsibilities?