Training subsidies for capital childcare

The local council has worked with the childcare partnership to develop the programme, which offers 1,000 free courses in areas such as first aid, food hygiene and health and safety. These are open to all childcarers, including out-of-school workers, childminders and nursery workers in the private and voluntary sector.

The programme will also offer around 300 people access to a range of nationally recognised courses, including the HNC in childcare and education and level 2 and 3 Scottish Vocational Qualifications in both early education and childcare and playwork.

Jacquie Pepper, senior officer for the childcare partnership, said, 'We are providing a huge subsidy for the training. We are asking the employer to pay 100, and the individual to pay the same amount although they can claim a contribution through the individual learning accounts scheme, so the most any childcarer should have to pay is 25.' The programme is funded by Pounds 500,000 from the Scottish Executive's national initiative, 'Childcare: the training challenge', announced in July 2000. It was devised with the help of questionnaires sent out to providers and an audit of the city's childcare training needs carried out by consultants Blake Stevenson last year.