Early Years Recruitment - Recruiting and Growing Your Team
Building a Stronger Early Years Team
Recruiting passionate, qualified staff and nurturing new talent through apprenticeships is key to delivering high-quality early years education. Whether you're looking to expand your team or nurture new talent, we’ve put together some practical ideas and resources to help you recruit effectively and explore the benefits of apprenticeships.
Recruitment: Finding the Right People
- Use values-based recruitment to attract candidates aligned with your setting’s ethos.
- Promote your setting’s career development opportunities
- Keep an eye on average salaries and hourly rates of pay to ensure you remain competitive. You could also consider staff incentives and benefits, for example free / discounted childcare, holiday allowance, wellness days, staff discount schemes - some providers use ‘https://www.enjoybenefits.co.uk/’ or ‘https://www.yellownest.co.uk/’
- Use the ‘Early Years Qualifications Checker’ to:
-check if an early years qualification achieved in England is approved as full and relevant by the Department for Education (DfE).
-confirm if someone who holds this qualification can count in staff:child ratios at level 2, 3 or 6 in an early year setting in England.
-Start - Check an Early Years qualification
- Contact local colleges and training providers
- Host open days or community days which may attract prospective staff and apprentices
Resources
- Check out our article 'Do Something Big Campaign' - Government’s Summer Campaign to attract more people to work in the Early Years sector.
-Recruitment Campaign Material.
-Posting a job for free on the government’s Find A Job website. For Instructions how to create an account, please click here.
-Early Years Qualification Checker.
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships are a powerful way to develop new talent while supporting your current team. They offer hands-on experience and help you to develop a skilled and loyal workforce and identify and nurture talented individuals who could become future leaders or mentors within your setting.
Resources
Childcare Works: The Hub
Please click here for ‘Leadership and Management’ section of the Early Years Toolkit where you will find a wide range of material and information relating to recruitment, staff retention and managing staff.
For Example