The Alliance say that it is the biggest-ever offer of free training by an early years organisation and is worth millions of pounds to the early years and childcare sector.
Early years settings that are Alliance members will be able to choose up to eight free training programmes for every member of staff, as part of their membership package.
The distance-learning training courses are worth up to £5,000 to a setting with 20 staff.
Courses, made up of a series of online training modules, will be available from May and are approved by the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Certification Service.
The Alliance’s chief executive Neil Leitch told Nursery World, ‘Local authorities are telling us that they want to do more training but are having to cut back, which means that providers need to find extra money for training.’
He said that the organisation has decided to make the training offer a priority in response to a call from members, as training for early years providers is being withdrawn by local authorities forced to cut their budgets.
Mr Leitch added, ‘With the decline in the availability of traditional classroom-based training and the rising cost of releasing staff to go on training courses, these programmes provide a high-quality, cost-effective and accessible route to train all staff on the topics that matter to early years staff.’
The EducCare courses covered by the free training are:
- child protection awareness in education
- safer recruitment
- children’s rights
- child neglect
In addition, early years staff can choose to take four specially designed free training programmes which are being developed to support the requirements of the revised EYFS, managing the Ofsted inspection process, and carrying out effective self-evaluation. A fourth course is in development.
EduCare, based in Leamington Spa, has been running for 25 years and runs distance-learning courses for councils, schools, public, and private and voluntary organisations throughout the country.
Managing director Keir McDonald said, ‘We are pleased to become a provider of choice to the Alliance. We are very impressed with the professionalism of the organisation and share its ethos of a commitment to excellence.
‘We welcome the opportunity to assist the Alliance in continuing to deliver the highest-quality support to its membership.’
Access to the distance learning courses will be available online to all setting managers, their staff and volunteers who are registered Alliance members. Once a setting has taken its free allocation it can buy other courses for a discounted rate.
Details on how to register for the free training will be available from 1 May on the Alliance website at www.pre-school.org.uk.
