Leading nursery chains find the promise that staff can access the necessary training to enable them to work their way up from the baby room to the boardroom plays a critical role in helping them combat the recruitment crisis. But nowadays, many of the childcare sector's in-house training schemes are being squeezed by new funding arrangements.
At the same time, there is the national drive to increase childcare places and the need to meet the Government's new national daycare staffing standards. So the already-severe recruitment crisis looks set to deepen over the next few years.
Chains such as Leapfrog, Kids Unlimited, Child Base and Buffer Bear nurseries have set up their own in-house training departments to ensure their establishments are staffed by high-calibre personnel. Employers also believe they are more likely to retain staff that they have trained. But the Modern Apprenticeship (MA)scheme is limited to candidates aged under 25,so there is no support for training unqualified, mature staff. Meanwhile, within the MA scheme, funding for the older candidates, those aged 19-plus, has been cut. Stewart Pickering, managing director of Kids Unlimited, says, 'I can't understand how we can have one Government department that says, "We want more childcare. We want neighbourhood nurseries, a million extra places, and a move from the UK position of 7 per cent access to childcare to the US position of 40 per cent." At the same time another arm of Government says, "We are going to drop the funding for training." Where is the logic in it? It is absolutely crazy.'
He rules out any suggestion of closing down the chain's in-house training centre. 'We can't close it down. It is too important to the company. The ethos of the company is heavily involved with training. We never differentiate where the funding is coming from when we train our staff. We don't differentiate whether they are under 25, over 25, qualified or unqualified. We offer the same training.'
Ann Johnson, Child Base assessment centre manager, explains that training is one of the core principles of the company. Its handbook states that the chain recognises 'its future success depends upon the ability and enthusiasm of its staff and therefore all employees are encouraged to develop their knowledge and skills'.
The company has grown in the 12 years since it was founded. 'And the people have grown with it too,' says Mrs Johnson. 'I was a part-time nursery nurse when I started and I have been able to work my way up.'
She and her colleagues tackled the staffing crisis head-on this year by launching a national campaign of visiting schools, colleges and recruitment fairs to sell their wares and try to attract people who will be joining the job market this summer. 'We can tell them there is a career path they can follow and they can develop and move on if that is what they want to do.' Mrs Johnson says of the recruitment crisis, 'We can cope with it. We have everything here in our assessment centre. We can deliver training and we have our own nurseries, so we can offer placements. We are ideally placed except for the funding. We have to fight for funding.'
Staff undergo performance review twice a year at which their training needs are identified. The different requirements are collated and an annual, company training programme is devised that caters for personnel to attend in-house courses as well as locally-run training sessions.
Kay Turner, managing director of Buffer Bear nurseries, says chains have to juggle their finances if they are to maintain funding for training at the same time as keeping fees at affordable levels. At Buffer Bear, training is the priority investment this year. 'Our people are our most important resource, and their training is our investment priority,' says Dr Turner.
Leapfrog head of personnel and training, Tracey Storey, says chains need to balance the ratios between qualified and unqualified staff if they are to meet the Government's new staffing standards. It can be tricky to strike the right balance, particularly as companies are operating in a climate where there is a decreasing number of applicants, and it can take staff one to two years to reach qualified status. But Leapfrog is committed to training and 'helping staff achieve their lifelong learning aspirations, which is closely linked to David Blunkett's statements about Britain being in a new learning age'.
Like other chains, Leapfrog's training programme includes early years NVQ 2 and 3, as well as business administration NVQ 3, and the NVQ assessor awards which count towards NVQ 4 in management.
Mrs Storey believes it would be possible to attract more people into a career in the early years sector if they appreciated all that was involved.'It is important to raise the profile of nursery nurses,' she says. 'Someone joining Leapfrog has the opportunity to progress along a career path. I don't think people understand what is involved in doing a nursery manager's job. They need to have a range of skills to manage quite large businesses with large numbers of customers and staff.'
When funding for a training department is limited, one way to boost resources is to look further afield for different sources of cash support or to provide training for other organisations, such as early years development and childcare partnerships, and plough the profits back into the in-house training centre.
Leapfrog led the way in securing European Social Fund cash for training projects. Child Base also successfully applied for ESF aid for its recently-launched Developing Managers training programme which links in with NVQ 3 in management. It also won funding from the Department for Education and Employment for courses on recruitment and induction for the National Day Nurseries Association.
One bright prospect highlighted by Dr Turner is the new funding offered by partnerships to pay for cover for staff while on training courses. 'In some areas, when it is difficult enough to recruit staff, it can be hard to find cover. Funding for cover for training came on stream this April from some partnerships and it is very welcome.'
Tracey Storey says younger candidates are nowadays opting to join a chain and get paid while undertaking NVQ training, rather than follow the more traditional training route of attending college. 'Quite a few of the staff that joined over the past few months are younger women who once would gone to college to study for an NNEB, but now realise they can get paid while they train and gain a similar qualification.'
Buffer Bear is committed to funding training for mature staff. As Dr Turner explains, 'I returned to work at the age of 40 having raised my family and I am very keen to encourage others to do so too. Employing older people gives a better balance to the nursery team. When you encourage people to return to employment it works both ways. They bring with them a lot of skills and life experience, and we help and support them to gain a formal qualification. I think it is a price well worth paying.'