The Early Years National Training Organisation (NTO) is part of the Council for Awards in Children's Care and Education and is currently involved in a number of exciting projects. It is one of more than 70 NTOs (nearly every industry has one) charged by the Government with improving the future competitiveness of the UK by increasing the level of knowledge and skills of the workers in its sector.
We represent the employment interests of everyone working with babies and young children in the UK, ensuring the future workforce needs of the sector are planned via strategies on recruitment, retention, training and qualifications. We develop and review the National Occupational Standards (on which early years qualifications are based) and administer the Modern Apprenticeship schemes for the sector and the Making Choices orientation programme.
We work through a structure of representative committees, with a national council for the UK, plus a committee each for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These are made up of representatives of private, public and voluntary sector employers who donate their time to the NTO for the purpose of UK-wide strategic planning.
The many small settings and self-employed people in our sector are represented by their professional bodies, such as the Pre-school Learning Alliance, National Childminding Association and the National Day Nurseries Association.
At the moment the Government is reviewing the NTO network and it is likely a number will be asked to merge or form clusters of related sectors. The Government wants NTOs to focus on a number of core functions such as predicting the workforce needs of their sector and planning strategies to meet them. This strategy is endorsed by both central and devolved governments.
The Early Years NTO has gained feedback from each of the country committees on the review process, and there has been unanimous agreement on a number of issues. The outstanding view was that the early years sector is very distinctive in a number of ways, and this should be championed by a dedicated NTO.
High profile
The sector combines care and education, has a vast number of small or one-person settings, is engaged in vast and rapid expansion, and is very high profile and central to Government policy on the economy and education. In order for all these issues to be taken into account and for the sector to be adequately represented at this time of enormous change it is vital that the NTO remains as a voice for the sector as a whole, preferably as an independent NTO or in an influential position within a cluster which can accommodate its integration of care and education.
Due to the changing role of Local Learning and Skills Councils following the changeover from TECs, the Early Years NTO will be dealing more directly with training providers in future. We have established a database of Modern Apprenticeship training providers and set up a Modern Apprenticeship section on our website, which is designed to provide all the information that you will need, including the new Key Skills requirements.
Refugee guidance
Regarding standards for working with the children of refugees, asylum seekers and travellers, the NTO's interest in this area arises from discussions with a number of our partner organisations in the sector who reported the lack of guidance and a coherent approach for mainstream early years settings in providing appropriate services for children arriving in this country as asylum seekers and refugees. Their needs are not reflected in the National Occupational Standards (on which qualifications are based) and, as the NTO is in the process of reviewing these standards, it seemed a good time to do some background information gathering. The NTO has a long-term plan to develop pan-European standards in this area of work to ensure that children receive care of a comparable standard whichever country they arrive in.
The NTO has been successful in obtaining European Social Fund (ESF) funding for specific training and qualifications targets in five English regions (east Midlands, north west, south east, south west and Yorkshire and Humberside), in Wales and in Scotland. It will be made up of about 44 per cent funding from the ESF plus match funding from the NTO as the public match funder and project partners such as EYDCPs, voluntary and private sector organisations and training providers. Much of this match can be via in-kind contributions such as the time of participants to attend meetings, the provision of rooms and refreshments or travel expenses, as long as none of this match funding comes from other ESF sources.
It amounts to a significant spend on training and qualifications in both the early years and playwork sectors and is particularly geared to support the people who could not otherwise access funding for training. The closing date for this project is the end of December.
Contact the Early Years NTO, Pilgrims Lodge, Holywell Hill, St Albans, Herts AL1 1BR (01727 738300, fax 01727 738304, e-mail enquiries@early-years-nto.org.uk,website www.early-years-nto.org.uk).
