Is There An Early Years Recruitment Crisis Looming? PACEY Wants To Hear What Colleges Think
PACEY seeks views of colleges regarding new early years teaching requirements
Early years specialists agree that the key to providing high quality childcare and early education is well-trained and qualified professionals. The quality and qualification of the early year workforce has never been higher – but recently there has been much speculation about an impending sector-wide recruitment crisis.
With the media reporting on an early years teacher shortage and difficulties in recruiting early years teacher trainees, the sector is bracing itself for the fallout. But is this just hearsay? What effect are the GCSE requirements having on settings? How does the apparent lack of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) affect the amount of people applying to be early years teachers?
The Professional Association for Childcare & Early Years (PACEY) is looking to gather the opinions of college leaders with a short survey. The organisation is keen to ascertain what the reality is in further education colleges around England and what is happening at grass roots level.
After all, quality in early years settings has been found to be closely associated with qualifications, leading many experts to assert that the key to high quality is upskilling the workforce. But is that quality coming at a price?
At PACEY, our members are saying that the need for Level 3 early years educators to hold GCSEs in both maths and English is creating an additional barrier to early years students entering the profession. In addition, Level 2 practitioners already working in the sector are being prevented from progressing and fulfilling their potential. Many organisations and settings are now finding it increasingly difficult to recruit the appropriately qualified staff they need to maintain the staff ratios required by regulation.
There is a clear need to improve support for all childcare professionals – whichever setting they work in and PACEY is urging college leaders to share their views and opinions in our survey. The results of the research will be shared at government level and could influence change.
You can find the survey here – the deadline for completion is 5pm, Wednesday June 1st
Susanna Kalitowski is Policy and Research Manager at PACEY; for more information, visit www.pacey.org.uk or follow @paceychildcare
