Back to basics

The scale of the challenge to transform childcare into a graduate-led profession is underlined by a survey showing that early years advanced apprentices are scoring the worst success rates across the entire work-based learning sector.

In 2005-2006, more than two-thirds of them failed to gain their full framework award of NVQ 3, key skills and technical certificate, according to the report by the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI).

The main stumbling block is the widespread failure to gain key skills qualifications in literacy and numeracy, raising concerns that the development of these crucial skills in young children is being entrusted to people who have not mastered them.

Margaret Swift, who led the survey team, says greater numbers of candidates are gaining their basic NVQ awards - 51 per cent at Level 3 and over 60 per cent at Level 2 in 2005-2006.

'People are getting the NVQ, but not the whole framework, and are working as NVQ-qualified,' she says. 'Good employers won't do that, but some will.

These people have not got their key skills; they have not developed literacy and numeracy skills.'

This further clouds the grey area outlined by the Children's Workforce and Development Council (CWDC) on the issue of raising the proportion of the early years workforce with Level 3 qualifications to 70 per cent by 2010.

A CWDC report casts doubt on the assertion in the 2005 Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey that 58 per cent of the workforce have at least a Level 3 qualification, by suggesting that they might not all have the full qualification and that some people may count one unit towards a Level 3 qualification as being the Level 3 qualification.

Early years consultant and former Foundation Stage director Lesley Staggs says, 'The push for a well-trained workforce is one of the key things in early years. It is bad enough that there are huge numbers of people in early years who need support in terms of additional training, but if we are bringing into the system people who are supposed to be well-trained but aren't, then we are never going to break this.

'I am constantly arguing that we need a huge investment in money in the early years and we just cannot afford to be wasting it.'

Pathway to EYP

'As we move towards a graduate-led profession, the implications of a lack of basic skills is clear,' says Stella Ziolkowski, head of workforce development at the National Day Nurseries Association. 'Individuals may find themselves unable to get on the pathway to achieving Early Years Professional Status if they do not ensure now that they have a good level of basic skills.'

Pauline Jones, national development manager for early years at the CWDC, says, 'We are working closely with the Learning and Skills Council and the Childcare Centres of Vocational Excellence network to identify best practice and raise apprenticeship achievement rates.

'Our early years workforce strategy, with Early Years Professional Status as the gold standard, and a focus on raising the proportion of the workforce with Level 3, will help to develop the infrastructure of high-quality mentors, tutors and assessors.'

But ALI's chief inspector David Sherlock warned in his last annual report, 'The suggestion of a move to graduate professions needs care - being of graduate calibre does not necessarily confer the right attitude and skills, but neither does a declaration of liking children or wanting to look after people.'

'Apprenticeships were supposed to provide vocational training for people who were finding academic study more challenging,' says Emma Phillips, managing director of nursery chain Child Base. 'The problem is they come out of school to learn essentially a vocational job, and you are expected to fill the gaps that the education system has failed to plug.

'A lot of NVQ assessors are not trained in how to deliver these key skills.

It is quite hard on the employers. This is shoving on to the employers the responsibilities that the education system has not met.'

Key skills need to be integrated into the NVQ qualification, says Susan Brakewell, operations divisional manager at the Council for Awards in Children's Care and Education (CACHE). 'Our centre advisors are working with our training providers to spread this good practice and ensure that not only are key skills central to all areas of learning, but that all of their staff are experienced and confident in delivering and assessing in these areas.'

Problems with NVQs often stem from the lack of life skills among students, coupled with employers' lack of understanding of the NVQ programme, which means they do not give trainees adequate time and support.

'The loophole where people who complete the NVQ but not the apprenticeship are counted as qualified needs to be tightened,' says Ms Staggs. 'Surely it can't be counted as an NVQ if there are key bits missing?

'There needs to be continuing and rigorous monitoring of courses that are unsatisfactory. We are talking about public money going into this training, if they are not delivering high-quality training then the funding should be removed to give to the people who are succeeding. We need a well-qualified workforce.'

Improving practice

Funding for training should be revised, says Catherine House, owner of Springlands Nursery in Colchester, Essex. The one-system-fits-all approach 'does not facilitate individual learning needs or enable candidates to consolidate what they know before confidently moving on to the next step of their training,' she says.

The best practice identified in the survey will be placed on ALI's Excalibur good practice database, which is transferring to Ofsted, and some of it will be picked up by the Quality Improvement Agency (see box).

'We hope that early years training providers will read this and look to improve their practice,' says Ms Swift. 'The new standards for Children's Care, Learning and Development have made a significant difference to the way the programme is being delivered. Learners are not having to produce massive portfolios which they don't really understand. Hopefully we are going to see these standards have a big impact in that they are learning through discussing, sharing and being more reflective and hopefully that will see a much improved success rate.'

But Sue Meekings, childcare director at nursery group the Childcare Corporation, says, 'I think from the students' perspective that the literature that supports the CCLD standards is not as accessible as it could be.

'It is irrelevant whether those delivering the award think it is a better document. The calibre of the students who qualify and gain the award will determine whether it is a better qualification.'

NVQs: Examples of good practice

The ALI team surveyed providers judged to be the best, and devote most of the report to detailing their good practice on these key areas:

* Recruiting learners to the right level of programme

* Providing a pre-training period so learners can confirm that childcare is the career for them

* Strong management of the NVQ programme to keep employers informed and learners on track

* Using well-qualified teaching staff with a thorough knowledge of early years

* Integrating keys skills teaching into the NVQ course

* Being innovative in assessment practices and using the Children's Care, Learning and Development Standards to rely more on discussions and reflective practice than producing bulky portfolios.

Jace Training and Puffins are two training providers featured in the report for their focus on key skills.

Jace has a success rate of about 65 per cent, twice the national rate, although about a third of its learners have learning needs. Its managing director, Chris Pritchard, has devised an apprenticeship workbook that has just been published by Heinemann (see Further Information).

'We have now set up a key skills department solely to address literacy and numeracy,' says operations manager Gail Shenton. 'We make the key skills relevant to their everyday work. One exercise talks about going shopping for a birthday tea and asks how many apples are needed if each child has a quarter of an apple. Before they know it, they have worked in fractions.'

At Puffins all the nursery staff, from managers down, are expected to take their key skills qualifications. 'They work together and support one another,' says training manager Sue Holding. 'We have breakfast clubs and crammer weeks when people come in every day for a week and really get to grips with it.'

Further information

* The survey, 'Early Years: It's not all child's play' in ALI's Talisman supplement, issue 59, is available at www.ali.gov.uk until 31 March and then from www.ofsted.gov.uk or the ALI publications helpline 0115 901 3339.

* Strategies and targets for raising the proportion of the early years workforce with Level 3 qualifications - advice to the DfES is available at www.cwdcouncil.org.uk

* For Apprenticeship Workbook for Children's Care, Learning and Development by Chris Pritchard, covering the City and Guilds NVQ, key skills and technical certificate, visit www.heinemann.co.uk