The drive to improve standards is seemingly having the opposite effect, with numbers of Level Three-qualified staff and above, down eight per cent on last year.
The association warned at these rates, there may not be enough staff to deliver the Government’s 30-hours free childcare pledge.
If the GCSE requirement were scrapped and replaced with an ‘everyday maths and English’ standard, the sector would be pulled back from the brink, said the NDNA.
Even a Level Three accountancy apprenticeship allows functional skills as an alternative to maths and English GCSEs, as well as health and social care, and support teaching.
In 2015, the ‘Level Three and above’ category made up 83 per cent of employees, but the rate is now 75 per cent, according to the association’s latest Workforce Survey, published today (Wednesday).
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