However, the truth is that this system has been failing its younger candidates for years, because there is nothing 'vocational' about the way this qualification is marketed. The NVQ system is no longer aimed at, or made easily affordable to, the target group it was supposedly designed for - the unqualified staff already working in childcare, with years of experience and skills.
Sadly, it has evolved as merely the final stage of a well-trodden path from employment office to careers office to training agency for many of today's school leavers. These young women (many of whom are still in need of much support themselves) are then being sold on the notion that a 50 a week training allowance is better than nothing.
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