Am I wasting my money and her time? Advice appreciated

5 applicants is great. You don't want lots of applicants, makes it hard to choose. You want just a couple who meet the minimum requirements and then you see how they gel with all the family.

My mumboss is younger than me, I don't think we found it an issue whilst she was on ML. Keep in mind that a nanny is an employee, you tell them what to do. Sure an older nanny may well have their particular ways of doing things but ultimately it's you who has control. Nanny and parents need to get along though, be a united front otherwise the children will play one off against another - "but mummy lets me" "but nanny lets me" type thing.

I seem to recall that the NNEB course I did at one point involved bathing a baby (doll). Not sure courses include that these days, though they might but bathing a doll is not like bathing a wriggly, slippery baby. Theory is all well and good but practical experience is where most of the learning takes place in my view. Maybe this potential nanny just doesn't have enough practical experience to make you feel confident that they would cope with your children. They may be better off finding a family with less children and getting more of a grounding of experience in childcare before tackling a larger family.

How about other candidates - are there any in the running?

Lack of qualifications generally could well be an issue. Some people seem to me to go into childcare because they can't do anything else due to poor grades obtained at school. For many of the nannies who post on here though that isn't the case as in the past we have discussed what educational hisory we have and I'm the dunce as highest I've got is an HND which is below Degree.

Checkmate - you said that the nanny does have babysitting experience, so what has that involved. It may have involved quite a bit, or may have involved very little. Some babysitters may be caring for children who are awake, who need a bath before going to bed etc. So if you feel that she is still in the running, then investigate more about what practical childcare experience she has from the babysitting and any other thing she may have done with children, such as caring for younger siblings.

But the bulk of the marks on NVQs came from observation. Which was a positive and a negative in that it ensured experience but of necessity academic standards had to be lower in terms of amount of theory covered. Compare an activity/portfolio based A-level to an academic one and you start to get the idea.

The idea of the newfangled diploma is to move back to the old old style NNEB where you had to actually know a lot of stuff. Qualifications just got too split - BTEC if you were academic after GCSEs, CACHE diploma if you were averagely capable after GCSEs and NVQ if you were already working - and standards wrre being measured in different ways. An NVQ and a BTEC were both lebel 3 and supposedly equivalent but everyone knows they weren't. That's before we start on the various subspecialisations....

agree frakyou.... very good point

I still thought the course was far far easier than an A / AS level that I studied, and to be honest easier than most of my GCSE's as well.... though of course when doing GCSE's I most certainly didnt have the studying experiance / skills that id aquired by the end of my degree!
(I did it as a short course, 1 evening a week, term time (but long holidays) between end of September and May, so less than 1 academic year!... you could only be on my course if you were already working in a childcare setting)

(I too was depressed at how some people seemed to really struggle with the course!)

Mmm at the risk of sounding an educational snob I agree that where there are older DCs involved then a good spread of GCSEs at grade C or above become desirable, possibly even necessary for children at the top end of primary.

nannyl once you've done a degree, particularly if it's related to children in any way, of course vocational equivalents to A-levels seem easy! When you look at the profile of people doing them, however, they are quite challenging. There's a lot to cover if you don't have well developed study skills and a lot of it seems like common sense if you've read a few books and got some experience but doesn't when you're younger. I'm sure you'd have no problem tackling an A-level in any humanities subject having done a Bachelors. I've been doing final year equivalents at the OU in subjects I haven't studied since GCSES and I can do that because the actual knowledge is finite and not that hard to acquire once you work out what they're asking, know how to study and know how to write an essay.

OFSTED reg course is a piece of cake though. I did it with a bunch of pre-reg CMs and I was quite depressed at how many were struggling :(

My opinion is that the courses dont teach you much anyway

I did my degree, then did CACHE NVQ3 Early Years education. I know this exact course doesnt exist any more, but im sure it has a similar name with maybe 1 or 2 different units making at "a different course".
I did it while nannying and my assessor visited me at work for the practical assessment.

I was shocked (honestly) at how ridiculously easy it was! I swear to god a couple of the work sheets (safety in the home) that we did, i did the VERY SAME ONES while at primary school!!!!!! (because i had a degree they didnt make me do level 2 1st!)

(though i wasnt used to being able to just copy from books as "gospel truth", had been used to evaluating & referencing peer reviewed journal, not plagerising someone elses work!)

I think people can be natural with children, most mums dont have childcare qualifications and bring up lovely children. She clearly wants to work with children and has a genuine interest in them, so I'd be happy to go with that.

Being qualified made job finding a lot easier for me. Much easier to be a qualified nanny, rather than only experienced, but I do wish parents themselves realised what courses these people had passed!
A nanny friend did the official course thing (home based) so as to be qualified enough to be on the ofstead childcare approval scheme register. It was a book of common sense (IMO) (answers) then about 50 multiple choice answers. Id suggest that if you gave the form to most year 7s, without revision they would probably pass!
I had to go round just to look (and laugh) at the form.

NEST withdrew their nanny course. I vaguely remember whispers on the agency grapevine about it being misrepresented as equivalent to things it wasn't.

Someone on NJ just completes the DCYPW. The DHC was very CM focused with nannies being an add-on, the new diploma is supposedly much better.

But again as most others gave said what she lacks is experience, and she needs hands on training more than book learning and how to write assignments.

For her personal progression I see why she would want to do a course but then she needs to commit to the one that will give the most options rather than take shortcuts.

Does NEST still offer the Nanny course... can't see it on their website, though did find something about it in the Google cache.

I completed the Nanny Level 3 Course with N.E.S.T.
I'd previously attempted to do the Diploma in Childcare & Education and NVQ3 in Childcare but found the courses too long and was unable to fit it in with my hectic schedule!

The Nanny Level 3 was a short course but much more intense as you only have up to 6 students in the class so there is more help and understanding from the tutor - who was absolutely fantastic!

I'll pm u the details as not sure if I'm allowed to name names/websites on here??

You have 5 95 children so have experience of caring for your own children but you might not have any formal qualification in childcare, yet you have managed.

She has already done some courses - from the sounds of it those courses would be sufficient to register as a childminder, though not to work as room leader in a nursery.

You mention that you would want her to a correspondence course... I would wonder if just buying some books would be as good. For example:
From Birth to Five Years: Children's Developmental Progress - an old publication but still one I expect is in use as it sets out how a child would be expected to develop over the first five years, thus can help identify when a child has slipped significantly below norm.
Child Development: An illustrated guide
Toddler Taming
Playful Parenting

You could also add some cook books, such as My Daddy Cooks: 100 Fresh New Recipes for the Whole Family (also see the www.mydaddycooks.com website for some recipes, plus I find many of the recipes here on Mumsnet useful.)

Those four I feel would give a good grounding in child development, dealing with unwanted behaviour and emotional needs of children in the 0-10 age range.

I don't think there is any specific course for nannies, even now with the new homebased care courses (as I suspect they are aimed at childminders - has anyone done one recently... is it suitable for nannies or was it more for small group care, such as by childminders?).

What skills don't you think this nanny has?

She has great references from babysitting (has any of that been times when children were not in bed?)

Should I just concentrate on training her in what I want in terms of the care of my baby, toddler, and older children during ML?

I think that would be useful. Then once you are back at work, then she could do a distance learning course to backup learnt knowledge on the job plus from the books. The course would give her a certificate, though the value I feel is in the hands on work with children of mixed ages.

I would also put something in the contract that says if she leaves before x she reimburses the cost of the course. Or maybe half?

Now that is aimed at nursery workers. Nannies don't implement the EYFS. There will be a big focus on planning and evaluating activities, doing observations and adhering to the EYFS framework. It's not regarded as a full and relevant level 3 qualification either.

£400ish? Where are you finding that as it's a fab price.

Most are £1k+ - MNT is one of the cheapest at 3 lots of £395 (so just under £1200) and the NEC is average at £1695.

Those optional modules should be available through most distance learning providers like MNT or the NEC. I agree they'd be more beneficial as a nanny and hopefully she will take the same view!

Assuming you didn't have an NNEB nanny before the content of the course in terms of compulsory elements hasn't changed that much and anyone wanting to work in Early Years or as a nanny would be picking option modules which suit that career path. If you're paying I reckon you can limit the options but give her a decent range including ones you might think are slightly tangential to nannying. You can find more detailed specs for each unit if you're at all in doubt from the name.

Home based child are service isn't that bad a module! It has a pot on working in partnership with parents but it will repeat what she's already studied!

Finally she's your favourite for a reason. Go with your feelings. You'll be working closely at first so it's important you get on, she seems keen to learn and you're prepared to invest tine in training her. Win-win.

Sounds to me like she needs experience, not training. I think hiring her on a lower rate as a MH with a transition into (higher paid) nanny role sounds ideal for both of you. And if you really like her (i.e. the click factor), then that counts for a lot. I'd go for it.