Nursery Management: Training - The right mix

Ensuring a high-quality workforce means having access to high-quality continuing professional development (CPD). The motivation to continually refine one’s practice is part of what it means to be an early years professional. As educationalist Dylan Wiliam says, all practitioners need to improve ‘not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better’.

Research has shown that high-quality interactions between adults and children are the key ingredient in effective early education. So how can settings and school leaders identify the CPD to get them there?

Over the past 20 years, many programmes have been developed and tested as part of research studies and found to be successful in improving child outcomes. We know that investing in CPD can make a difference; but we also know that not all CPD is up to the job. Of the programmes tested through research, there are as many showing no effects as there are successful ones. Successful interventions that have been tested as part of academic studies are often not available to settings and schools; and the CPD that is available has often not been evaluated.