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Minding the gap

Nurseries are finding they have to make up the skills shortage among newly recruited staff with extra training and funded courses. Mary Evans reports Staff training in 2002 will continue to be an added hurdle for early years managers as they struggle to deliver high quality childcare in a sector undergoing rapid expansion and wide-ranging reforms.

Staff training in 2002 will continue to be an added hurdle for early years managers as they struggle to deliver high quality childcare in a sector undergoing rapid expansion and wide-ranging reforms.

Nursery owners and managers contacted by Nursery World express concern about the calibre of candidates applying for jobs. Tracy Seed, childcare director of the Saplings chain, says, 'We used to get a much higher number of school leaver applicants, many of whom had C grades in English and maths. Now fewer apply to us and fewer have achieved C grade GCSEs. Qualified staff don't appear to have the same level of professionalism that they had in the past.'

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