Analysis: Recruitment - Credit crunch raises calibre of workforce

The Government's vision of a childcare workforce where all staff hold a minimum of a Level 3 qualification is being helped by the recession. The economic crisis has had a spin-off effect of raising the calibre of recruits coming into the sector, whether as school-leavers or workers who have been made redundant and are looking to retrain.

Colleges are reporting an increase both in the numbers and academic qualifications of the Level 3 intake this autumn across subject areas (see box). 'There has been a greater interest in vocational qualifications at the college across the board,' says a spokeswoman for Nescot, Epsom's further and higher education college. 'That is partly because there has generally been more positive publicity for vocational qualifications and some negative publicity about academic pathways in terms of delivering value for money in regard to future careers.'

Tina Jefferies, managing director of workforce consultancy Red Space, has noticed a similar trend. 'I don't know whether it is recession-driven. I was at a careers event and there were a number of girls, and some boys, who were obviously destined to get good GCSEs, who had it in mind to do child psychology at a later stage and were being advised by careers co-ordinators to do the CACHE or BTec Level 3 Diploma as it would carry credits towards a degree course.

'The rationale behind it was these qualifications are theory-based and knowledge-based and are a good interim between school and the workplace; or the students can go on from this qualification into higher education. It enables them to keep their options open.

'If you keep your options open you are keeping your employability open, which is possibly a factor. Young people can see their older brothers and sisters coming back from university with a baggage of debt and, in many cases, no prospect of employment.'

Another factor contributing to the higher academic intake at colleges is that schools are capitalising on the trend of improving GCSE results to raise their sixth-form entry criteria.

'Local schools and sixth-form colleges have upped the entry requirement this year from five GCSEs graded A-C to six Bs,' says the Nescot spokeswoman. 'Schools can cream off the students with the best GCSE results for their A-level courses. We have raised our entry requirements because we can, but it means those with not so good qualifications, or no qualifications, have fewer options.'

MODERN APPRENTICES

Just as college places are becoming ever harder for the least well-qualified to secure, so too is a job. Over the past six months, Linda Baston-Pitt, who has set up a training unit at her Old School House Nursery in Stetchworth, has been attracting applicants with A levels - often in health and social care - to her setting. The arrival of these new modern apprentices with graduate and manager potential is causing her to rethink their training.

'We are now getting people who are not going to university - because there is no place - as well as people who have been made redundant,' she says. 'Starting them on childcare Level 2 or 3 is not appropriate. They are already there. We are mapping what they have done and developing them. They lack the Early Years Foundation Stage so we will teach that, and we are also starting the Institute of Learning and Management Level 3 in line management. They are academically able and we want to fasttrack them.

'They could go to university but don't want to come out saddled with debts and no job. They prefer to have the opportunity to train knowing they have the potential to get to management level where they realise the pay will be better. It is a spin-off from the recession, but it is very positive. They have very clear goals and aim to be getting to graduate level but within early years.

'We are also getting people who have been made redundant or are under threat who realise that working with children is something they have always wanted to do. They are coming in with many different skills and with passion.'

RAISING QUALITY

Independent trainer and Early Years Professional assessor Kathy Brodie welcomes the effect that these new recruits will have on the workforce.

'If new staff come in who are intelligent, motivated people, it could shake things up a bit,' she says. 'That would be no bad thing. There is an element of complacency,' she adds, having spoken recently to a manager who reckoned that a change of Government would spell an end to Early Years Professionals and the Level 3 target.

If the EYPS survives, she believes these new recruits will seek to attain the status, before going on to jobs such as local authority pedagogues and early years consultants, leaving with years of direct experience and leaving behind them the quality they had brought to a setting.

'They would have more direct early years experience than many LA pedagogues and early years consultants, who are sometimes ex-teachers that have worked only in primary or even secondary schools,' she adds.

Effective early years practitioners need more than academic qualifications, warns Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association. 'Although the recession may play a part in encouraging people to consider vocational courses such as childcare, rather than academic qualifications, it is important to note there are other factors too. Motivation and passion are essential to work in the early years.'

Ms Jeffries, however, is positive about the trend. 'We have been full of platitudes about raising quality,' she says. 'When the National Childcare Strategy was initially implemented, recruitment issues were more about quantity than quality and I felt we were storing up problems for the future. It is good to think we might now be getting better qualified entrants into the sector.'

CASE STUDY

Aylesbury College in Buckinghamshire has had a huge rise in the quantity and quality of students over the past year, with numbers on the full-time Level 3 Childcare and Education Diploma course doubling from 19 to 38.

One significant trend has been the increase in new students who already have A-S and A levels, says Teresa Stroud, head of curriculum, Health, Childcare, Public Services & Distance Learning. Marked, too, is the rise in Level 2 learners staying on to do Level 3 - accounting for 23 per cent of the group.

Although the college entry criterion is unchanged at four GCSEs, 80 per cent of the Level 3 learners have got six or seven GCSEs graded A*-C, and some are outstanding - one has nine GCSEs.

Newcomers' grades are markedly higher than those staying on. 'Level 2 learners might have Ds in English, whereas we have a new student with an A in English,' says Ms Stroud.

The diploma is attracting students for a variety of reasons, according to the college. Some are using it as the route to university, as it is equivalent to three A levels. Some want to take the equivalent of A levels in a vocational subject. For others, their school refused to let them take A levels in their desired subjects.

'One said she had come here because, "I prefer to be able to experience it. For me that is the same as learning it",' says Ms Stroud.

As for the Level 2 learners, she adds, 'I think this group is staying on at college as there is a lack of employment opportunities for Level 2 staff because of the drive towards Level 3, and because settings are not recruiting. There are settings at risk and laying staff off, rather than recruiting.

'There is more awareness of the link between qualifications and employment,' she adds. 'Going out to work at 16 is not the option it once was. The numbers of 16-year-olds staying on has grown. We have had an increase in Level 1 learners, who traditionally would have gone straight out to work after leaving school.'

At present, the majority of the Level 3 intake wants to teach, while one wants to be a social worker. 'There is always a core of students who have, for a long time, wanted to work with children, and basically it is the prospect of the nursery placement that has drawn them to us,' says Ms Stroud. 'Once we have shown them the different career prospects, that might change.'