Nursery World - Janet King: Why professionalising early years must be at the forefront of any future workforce plans

Following on from NCFE's Spotlight report which highlighted a skills gap within the workforce, its sector manager for education and childcare, Janet King argues that the sector need to be professionalised to ensure its long-term success.

There’s little doubt that the early years sector is facing a crisis in terms of both recruitment and retention, but there are likely to be multiple contributing factors involved. I want to begin by exploring some of these factors and sharing thoughts and considerations around emerging concerns in the workforce, and how best to approach them.

A recruitment and retention crisis leads to an inevitable skills gap in the workforce. With any large turnover of staff, there are implications for stability, and this may equate to vulnerabilities in leadership and management.

Put bluntly, staff joining are not staying. Where they are staying, they are taking up management and leadership positions with little post-qualification practice, whilst more experienced staff are the ones that leave.

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