With fewer qualified practitioners coming out of the colleges, many settings prefer to hire unqualified staff and then train them in-house.
This has the added advantage that employers can ensure they have a workforce that meets their individual requirements. However, finding the right calibre of applicants can be difficult when childcare is competing against better paid jobs.
Some early years employers feel that schools and Jobcentres do not know enough about the pressures and pleasures of working with very young children and the qualities and skills childcare practitioners need.
Sandra Hutchinson, proprietor of Primley Park Children's Nurseries in Leeds, says, 'I am looking for older people, the over-50s. I heard from a woman of 51 who went to the local Jobcentre and when she asked about a job with me the girl told her I would be looking for younger people. It doesn't help if the Jobcentre gives the wrong impression. The Jobcentre does not seem to know the type of workers we want. They send some people to us who really are not at all appropriate for childcare 'The careers people are the same. I had one girl arrive here who had achieved four GCSEs at above grade C and the careers people told her childcare was for people of lower ability. I rang up the careers people and did my bit. The careers woman defended herself by saying the money was not good.
'I think careers teachers should come and visit local nurseries and see what the job entails. They don't seem to know about the educational side of childcare, the early learning goals and Ofsted inspections.
'In Leeds we have a lot of call centres and they offer attractive rates of pay. We have 70 people on the workforce. Over the past three years I have had three people who have gone to work in call centres but who have come back here because they get so bored. They want a job that is varied.'
As Ashoob Cook, managing director of the Happy Child chain, puts it, 'I think all of us employers share the same feeling. It is getting very difficult to recruit qualified staff and in some respects the calibre of staff is not the same as it was. I don't think people are coming into childcare with their hearts. Some are joining the nursery sector because there is very little else that they can do because they come from a low academic background. People who come in with their hearts are superb. We try to nurture people and help them to develop their talents and fulfil their potential.'
Hiring and training unqualified staff is expensive and time consuming and there is no guarantee that an employee will stay on after qualifying.
Tracey Storey, head of personnel and training at the Leapfrog chain, says recruitment decisions can be influenced by the need to create a balanced staff team of people with a mixture of ages, experience and qualities. She adds that the nature of the vacancy and the requirement to maintain the strict staff:child ratios mean that whatever a company's overall intentions, sometimes there may be no choice but to hire a qualified person.
Sue Moss-Thomas, manager of Orchard Barns Kindergarten, Colchester, says that although it is costly, the nursery does not include its trainees in the staff list so the ratio argument does not apply. 'We don't include our NVQ trainees in our ratios. They are supernumeraries. It is an expensive option for us, but we don't see how you can regard someone who is training as doing the same job as a trained person.
'It gives us more scope because we can always say to someone "take a study day tomorrow and get yourself up to date on your written work", and they feel they are achieving something and keeping on top of their work.'
Training is not a cheap option and employers who recruit unqualified staff and encourage them as they qualify, often do so in the hope that their confidence and support will be rewarded by loyalty and the person will stay in-post as an enthusiastic, long-serving member of the team.
But things do not always go according to plan and Ms Storey adds, 'Obviously some people leave when they are qualified and we just have to accept that this is going to happen.'
Even if an employer decides to hire unqualified staff and train them, there can be problems accessing suitable training. Ms Hutchinson says, 'There are some poor training organisations around. You have to identify one that comes up to your standards.'
Ms Cook seems to have solved the problem of finding the right calibre of training centre by owning the Aston Training Centre. 'Having a training centre gives you access to unqualified, hopefully trainable staff.' But she says it is not an option to undertake lightly.
'The Government has changed funding patterns and the training sector is very heavily regulated. It is intensely bureaucratic. There is a lot of red tape.'
Ms Hutchinson is considering whether to change her shift patterns to try to attract mothers with family commitments into the workforce. 'We have always looked for full-time staff because we believe in the importance of maintaining continuity of care with the children and in developing relationships with the parents. But I am looking more at offering part-time options and term-time/school-hour shifts while not disrupting the continuity of the relationship with the parents. We need to be flexible.'
Ms Moss-Thomas has been looking to hire and train mature applicants wishing to return to the workforce, but the training organisation which the setting uses, which in all other respects matches the nursery's high specifications, does not receive funding for mature students. 'Our training company hasn't had funding for training mature students which is ridiculous. We recently advertised for NVQ trainees and had about 50 applicants - about 40 of whom were over 30 and obviously had the life skills and experiences of raising their own families that we wanted. It is fantastic if you can get these returners-to-work back into the workforce.
'Earlier this year we opened a baby facility for under-twos with 12 places and we have managed to staff this new facility exclusively with mature people. They are all grandmothers in their late 40s and 50s.'
An advantage of hiring and training according to Ms Moss-Thomas is that employers can handpick staff. 'When we look at prospective applicants we feel we need to know that they are going to go beyond an NVQ Level 2 and move on up the career ladder.
'We don't put people on to employee status until they get Level 3. When they get to Level 2 we can say, "sorry we don't have a place for you. We will help find a placement for you if you want to do Level 3". We can boot out the people who are not of our calibre.' In this way the setting can build up and maintain a qualified workforce that meets its exacting standards.
Ms Hutchinson has spotted potential in youngsters on work experience from school and currently has three teenagers working in her settings whom she first met as 16-year-olds. 'I look at their personal qualities, their enthusiasm, reliability, flexibility and aptitude and above all their love for children.'
She has used her knowledge of the training available to encourage the teenagers to follow the qualification route that best suits them. One girl is working as an assistant for a year on a Modern Apprenticeship and James Campbell, aged 17, is earning and learning while taking an NVQ. Mr Campbell has completed Level 2 and has now moved on to Level 3.