Opinion: Editor's view - The money seems to have disappeared for work-based childcare training places
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The Government's aim of having every early years practitioner qualified to at least Level 3 by 2015 is looking far from achievable, given the funding crisis for childcare work-based courses and apprenticeships revealed in our news story this week (see page 3).
The Learning and Skills Council, responsible for distributing the funding for further education, has managed to overspend by a large amount the allocation for Train to Gain and 25+ apprenticeships. It is aiming to put a positive spin on this, by saying that it is the huge success and growth in demand for courses that has led to the need to cap places in the next financial year.
However, training providers and colleges who have responded valiantly to the call to provide much more training capacity to meet aspirations for a better-qualified early years workforce now feel that their efforts have seriously backfired with funding drying up.
This crisis could not have come at a worse time. Real progress has been made in improving the qualifications of childcare workers, and the momentum is there to continue this. But early years staff cannot afford to fund themselves through an NVQ, and nurseries cannot take on a large extra financial burden either, especially in the current economic climate.
As one training provider points out, if the Government wants a better qualified early years workforce, it needs to provide the money to enable this to happen.
EYFS survey
The number of consultations and surveys in this sector may seem endless, but all involved in working with the EYFS should take the time to fill in the QCA's questionnaire on how the new framework is going (see page 3).
