Nursery World - Speak out! (6)

Only massive investment in training will stave off a recruitment crisis and a drop in the quality of provision, says Michael Thompson, managing director of Child Base Let us say that as an industry we manage to recruit sufficient staff over the next ten years simply to replace those who leave the industry. With often-quoted turnover rates of between 25 per cent, and at the top end 40 per cent, this in itself will be no mean achievement. Now let us consider an industry that has 45,000 new places to be created through the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative (NNI). In an industry with an annual growth rate of over 10 per cent, this equates to an additional 800 nurseries a year. So between now and 2006, a very short five years, more than 60,000 new staff will be needed to plug the skills gap.

Let us say that as an industry we manage to recruit sufficient staff over the next ten years simply to replace those who leave the industry. With often-quoted turnover rates of between 25 per cent, and at the top end 40 per cent, this in itself will be no mean achievement. Now let us consider an industry that has 45,000 new places to be created through the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative (NNI). In an industry with an annual growth rate of over 10 per cent, this equates to an additional 800 nurseries a year. So between now and 2006, a very short five years, more than 60,000 new staff will be needed to plug the skills gap.

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