Bright Horizons Early Years Teacher pilot scrapped for autumn
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
A pilot Early Years Teacher training course, which trained staff for Bright Horizons, has been scrapped for September due to lack of demand.
Delivered by Kingston University, the School Direct course was a Graduate Entry route to becoming an Early Years Teacher (EYT) and would have been due to start this month. It recruited five students last year, but missed its targets for recruitment for 2015/16.
Bright Horizons, which provided placements for the course and helped shape the training, is now ‘reviewing different course options for 2015 graduate applicants’.
Jessica Johnson, senior lecturer in early years, Kingston University, said that the ‘low numbers made it not feasible for next year'.
‘This is becoming a national problem and this is bringing it to the fore,' she added.
The university will continue to run its graduate employment-based route, for those with degrees already working in settings, from this September.
Bright Horizons, the UK's second biggest nursery chain, was the only PVI nursery chain to take part in the pilot, which started in September 2014.
A spokesman for Bright Horizons said, ‘As a result of a business decision made recently by Kingston University, Bright Horizons will no longer be partnering with the university to deliver the School Direct Early Years Teacher Training programme from this September.
He added, ‘We continue to work towards a full early years programme partnership for 2016/2017 and fully intend and expect this to proceed for that academic year.’
The company is still a lead organisation for the programme, meaning it could team up with another university.
The other pilot providers, Etherley Lane Nursery School, Durham, St Edmund’s Nursery School, Bradford, Bristol Early Years Teaching Consortium and Everton Nursery School have all confirmed they are continuing with the scheme for the next academic year.
The School Direct (early years) programme is expected to expand from this year.
