Generation game

With fewer qualified practitioners coming out of the colleges, many settings prefer to hire unqualified staff and then train them in-house.

This has the added advantage that employers can ensure they have a workforce that meets their individual requirements. However, finding the right calibre of applicants can be difficult when childcare is competing against better paid jobs.

Some early years employers feel that schools and Jobcentres do not know enough about the pressures and pleasures of working with very young children and the qualities and skills childcare practitioners need.

Sandra Hutchinson, proprietor of Primley Park Children's Nurseries in Leeds, says, 'I am looking for older people, the over-50s. I heard from a woman of 51 who went to the local Jobcentre and when she asked about a job with me the girl told her I would be looking for younger people. It doesn't help if the Jobcentre gives the wrong impression. The Jobcentre does not seem to know the type of workers we want. They send some people to us who really are not at all appropriate for childcare 'The careers people are the same. I had one girl arrive here who had achieved four GCSEs at above grade C and the careers people told her childcare was for people of lower ability. I rang up the careers people and did my bit. The careers woman defended herself by saying the money was not good.