Long-term unemployed young people across the country are getting on the first rung of the early years career ladder, thanks to a £1 billion job creation scheme which is due to run until March 2011.
The Future Jobs Fund aims to create 100,000 jobs for young people, aged 18 to 24, who have been seeking work for a year. It will create 500,000 jobs in areas of high unemployment. Candidates are being given the chance of a job, training or work experience lasting at least six months.
The London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), and Pre-School Learning Alliance (PLA) are taking part in the scheme, run by the Department for Work and Pensions in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government.
It awards participating employers funding of a maximum of £6,500 for each job, which must be for no less than 25 hours a week, and paid at national minimum wage rates, at least. The jobs have to be additional posts that would not exist without the funding.
Patricia Hanson, NDNA's director of Strategic Partnerships and Development, says her organisation got involved in a consortium with Kirklees Council and is now expanding its work with the Future Jobs Fund into other parts of England and Scotland.
'It is a really innovative way to encourage more individuals to consider a career in childcare,' she says. 'As a national charity we saw there was a real opportunity to match up suitable jobseekers with nursery employers who would not only help candidates gain experience of the workplace, but also help them gain real life skills through working as childcare support assistants.
'Nurseries have been keen to get involved in the scheme,' she adds. 'The sector, of course, has a strong history of supporting people to gain experience in childcare, and most nurseries can tell stories of people who started as unqualified assistants becoming managers.'
SKILLS AND SELF ESTEEM
The Pre-School Learning Alliance has taken on 50 people under the scheme and is planning to employ 40 more. It views the Future Jobs Fund as the 'biggest jobs programme for a generation'.
Most PLA settings have set up nursery assistant posts, and administrative positions have been created in its head office. The trainees, who are selected by interview, need to provide references and those working in the nurseries undergo CRB checks.
According to a spokesperson, 'Each trainee receives a workbook which they complete throughout their six-month work placement, tracking their learning and providing them with a clear outline of what they can expect to learn and the skills and knowledge they will develop at various stages throughout the six months.
'During months five and six, the trainees will also receive assistance in producing a CV and interview technique training as part of the experience. Trainees will also be given guidance on career pathways within the Alliance if they wish to pursue a career in the early years sector.'
The London Early Years Foundation says that it got involved because it is a community-minded organisation.
April Rawlings, training centre co-ordinator, says, 'We wanted to help these young people develop their skills and their knowledge, confidence and self-esteem.
'We have gone further and offered them the chance to join our apprenticeship programme. This means a further six months, which we are doing at a cost to us.
'We didn't want to take them on for six months and at the end just say goodbye. With 12 months, they can gain a qualification and feel that they have achieved something. It gets them on to the career ladder.
'Key skills can be an issue, so the LEYF is appointing a key skills tutor who will work with students one day a week.'
TOWARDS A DREAM
For LEYF trainee Taja Hippolyte, the scheme is taking her a step nearer her dream of completing an early years foundation degree and opening her own nursery.
She says, 'I started in mid-February and it is great. I have always wanted to work with children, from a young age, and I was surprised and pleased that they managed to get me something that I was looking for.
'I had just finished my Level 2 at college when this came up, which worked really well for me. I have gone on to the apprenticeship with LEYF and I am doing the Level 3. It is quite intense but I want to get on.
'I would like to progress and do a foundation degree. My dream is to get a degree and end up having my own nursery. So this is really great for me.
'We do three days working on the placement and two days studying. Different professionals come in and talk to us - speech therapists or people telling us about safeguarding or health and safety. I wasn't expecting this to happen and it is really interesting.
'We go out on trips, which I also wasn't expecting. On Friday we went to Tate Britain and we had to look at it as if we were planning to bring the children from the nursery to visit. We had to look at how we would arrange the visit - the things you would take the children to see and the activities you would take back to the nursery, as well as all the organisational factors.'
MATURE CHOICE
Tracey Fenton, proprietor of Birkbees Nurseries in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, admits she was a bit sceptical about the scheme when she first heard of it, but she has now taken on three candidates - two men and a woman. In her area there is high unemployment.
'We have had students coming on placements before, but these three are different. They are more mature and are choosing childcare as a career. The men would probably have not got in to working in childcare without a qualification.'
She is offering help and support at the setting so one of her trainees, Resham Kaur, a mother of three, can gain a Level 2 qualification.
'I have been working part-time as a lunchtime supervisor at the junior school,' says Mrs Kaur. 'The little children in the nursery have such big imaginations and are so rewarding to be with. I like listening to them and they tell me what they want me to do when they are playing.'
She adds, 'I would like to do the Level 2 and build my skills in working with young children. The scheme has given me a valuable opportunity.'
CASE STUDY: A FRESH MINDSET
In scenic west Somerset, the employment opportunities for young people are limited to seasonal jobs in the tourist industry. Since leaving school last summer, Georgie Perkins has been studying for an Open University degree while looking for work.
Six weeks ago life changed when she gained a placement through the Future Jobs Fund at the Pre-School Learning Alliance's Little Horseshoe Nursery at the Williton Children's Centre.
'I want to be a teacher, so getting experience working with children, whether in school or nursery, is important for me,' says 18 year-old Georgie. 'I wanted to get a job as a teaching assistant, but that is hard if you haven't got an NVQ. But this has given me an opportunity to work with children. I wanted to teach the older children in primary school or middle school, but now I am interested in teaching reception.
'I really like working with the older nursery children. They are such great characters. I enjoy playing outside with them.
'I would like to be able to continue working here when the six months is up, but if that doesn't come about, at least I will have had the experience.
'I have a workbook and I will get a certificate at the end of it so I will have something to show what I have done. The nursery is giving me the opportunity to train. I have done first aid training and will be involved in a staff training day on planning. The Future Jobs scheme has been my first step.'
Nursery manager Rebecca Polsom reports that Georgie is getting on very well. 'I didn't think I would find somebody of this calibre,' she says. 'We have babies from six weeks, so she can see how learning really starts.
'Obviously we work to the ratios, but you can never have too many pairs of hands in a nursery. The nice thing about getting in Georgie and the next candidate coming to us is that they bring a different mindset. If you want anything done on the computers, these youngsters can do it instantly.
'We work in part of the children's centre and have contact with the Job Centre Plus staff, so we are in a good position to explain to them what the work entails, and they find this very helpful in terms of planning their careers.'
