Nursery World - Training Today: Identifying skills gaps and finding ways to plug them

How can the sector meet training needs amid the unprecedented growth expected due to the new funded entitlement, asks Hannah Crown

Using tools at Old Forge Nursery in Derby.

The early years sector’s struggle with recruitment is old news. Coupled with the seemingly unsolvable issues of poor pay and progression is a new challenge: the expanded entitlements coming into force across 2024. These will need 40,000 new staff, the Education Secretary has said.

Currently, 347,300 people are paid to work in childcare, the majority of whom are young (25 to 39 years old), with less than a fifth – 16 per cent – aged 50 or older at group-based providers, according to the Department for Education (DfE).

The pandemic exacerbated the loss of experienced staff, says Michael Freeston, director of quality improvement at the Early Years Alliance. ‘People who left during the pandemic took with them years of experience,’ he says. ‘It contributed hugely to the current recruitment and retention crisis.’

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