Nursery World - Aim higher please

It has to be said that while not every early years practitioner wants to be a teacher, in order to raise standards in the early years sector we do need a higher level of training. It's all well and good for nursery nurses to say that teachers get more money and that we deserve to earn the same amount, but teachers have trained for longer at a higher level. I know that as early years practitioners we have a broad knowledge of child development and child health, which some teachers lack.

It's all well and good for nursery nurses to say that teachers get more money and that we deserve to earn the same amount, but teachers have trained for longer at a higher level. I know that as early years practitioners we have a broad knowledge of child development and child health, which some teachers lack.

However, I feel the only way for us as professionals to move forward is to train at a higher level, such as the early childhood studies degree and the new foundation degree in early childhood studies, where there are many routes into early years teacher training. With this added qualification, we can challenge our pay not being the same as teachers'.

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