Traditionally, groups have operated as community-based charities run by a parent committee with paid staff and parent volunteers. The peer group camaraderie gives parents confidence to join a workshop or attend a course.
'We have about 3,000 students a year taking level 2 and 3 qualifications. Usually, they have become interested in early years from their own experience as parents,' says Michael Freeston, PLA director of training and quality assurance.
The organisation runs courses for a further 10,000 people a year, including continuing professional development for staff and parent volunteers, as well as family learning courses.
Its Introduction to Pre-school Practice is offered as a taster for parents thinking about a career in childcare and also as an outreach course for asylum seekers and as a return-to-learn course. 'The selling point is it is about how children develop and how parents can support their child's learning,' says Mr Freeston.
Just as pre-schools grow their own staff they also grow their own tutors, as demand for PLA qualifications heavily outstrips supply of both funding and staff to run the courses.
Dads in Dinghies The idyllic days of Ratty and Mole in The Wind in the Willows exploring the upper reaches of the Thames might seem a world away from inner-city London today, but a group of fathers in a PLA-run project in Lewisham have proved that there is still 'nothing so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats'.
Dads in Dinghies saw 15 fathers meet weekly for five months to build a skerry clinker sailing dinghy from a kit. Over two weekends in June they took the Royal Yachting Association level 2 qualification so they can borrow the boat on a time-share basis and take their families sailing or rowing on the Thames.
'The only proviso was that the fathers had to bring their children with them,' says Tim Neville, the PLA's family learning officer and project leader. 'There is a complete mixture of people from all ages and backgrounds. The children ranged from an 11-month-old to teenagers. 'Every Saturday morning from 10am to 2.30pm, they came to the Limelight Centre and we built the boat from scratch. Mark Evans, a design and technology teacher from a local secondary school, acted as our technical supervisor.
'The children helped with the boat, but when the fathers were working with power tools or there was dangerous glueing being done we organised related activities such as building model boats.'
The project was funded by Community Education in Lewisham, which paid for the 1,600 kit, and the completed boat is now valued at about Pounds 5,000.
One of the toughest challenges was finding a name for the boat, officially launched at the end of July. A toddler's suggestion of 'Boat' was rejected in favour of 'Alliance'!
The Limelight Centre, which is run by the PLA Lewisham branch, is a family learning centre which offers a range of services for families, from a wildlife garden to music sessions and behaviour management classes. Val Pope, Lewisham PLA branch manager, says, 'the lynchpin of it all is the pre-school.'
Paston & Gunthorpe Pre-school, Peterborough When Belinda Griffin took her daughter Charlotte along for her first session at the Paston and Gunthorpe Pre-school, Peterborough she did not realise she was taking the first steps towards a new career.
'When we walked in that first day in 1999 it was quite daunting, but each time I went I enjoyed it more and more. The supervisor Margaret Wilson encouraged me to attend a Jump Start workshop and it was really interesting. I had not realised what play was about and what you could get out of sitting on the floor playing with the children.
'The following March, Margaret and the supervisor from a nearby pre-school were training to be tutors and asked if I would like to go on the ten-week Learn Together course with them. I was very apprehensive. I wasn't brilliant at English at school which had put me off going further with my education.
'But it was brilliant. I could really learn and take it all in because it was so relaxed. Then Margaret suggested I might like to do the Introduction to Pre-school Practice.
'It changed my life. I learned so much. I became more and more involved with the pre-school and then a job came up and I got it. For the first time in my life I was being paid for doing something I really enjoyed.
'I went on to do the Certificate in Pre-school Practice. It took a long time because we were going just one evening a week. Then I had a car crash and was off work for three months. It gave me a completely different outlook on life. I decided to live my life and I was going to start up a group.
'That's what we did. With Jean Pragliola and her daughter Natalie, we opened Little Angels, Werrington, near Peterborough in January.
'We have had our first Ofsted and it was fine. So, we are thrilled. One or two of the mums are beginning to ask if they can stay and help and I look at them and think, "I have seen this before". I will ask them if they are interested in some courses and who knows.'
