Male Nanny

[stevenharris1984uk]

Hi,

My name is Steven I am 28 and currently work in Canary Wharf.

I am an administrator for a very large company but I am not satisfied with my work.

When I was 3 my Mum begin child-minding, she did this until I was 24. My entire life had been living in this environment. I loved my Mum doing this job as I got lots of experience with children. I was CRB checked and all is fine.

Since leaving home and working in the city all I want to do is get back into the childcare area. Either a male nanny or work for the NSPCC or something. As long as it is child related I would not care.

The only problem I have with trying to get a childcare role is I have no qualifications. I know a lot of people only look for that but I feel 11 years working in a child environment is enough of a degree.

I am wondering if there is anyone out there who knows of any jobs I may be able to try or does anyone need a male nanny with experience??

Any info you Mums can give I would appreciate.

Thank you for reading

Steve

I would look into doing a distance learning/online course in childcare. Almost everyone wants a nanny who is Ofsted registered and to be Ofsted registered you will need at least a bsaic childcare qualification.

Nanny jobs are few and far between at the moment and I would imagine that it is harder for a male nanny than a female nanny to find work even when jobs are plentiful. You need to make yourself as appealing as possible.

You could try being an au pair, but that wouldn't bring in very much money.

In the meantime - have you thought about volunteering? I volunteered for Childline for years.... got a lot out of it, I also work in CW and its easy to get to from here and they're flexible around shift times.

Thank you for your replies. I will look into both comments.

Why not do some work in a school or pre-school? I'd be open to a manny - but I would expect them to be particularly good with being a good role model to boys - helping with early literacy etc. I'd look more seriously at a candidate who had worked in a school. It would also validate that you have a professional enough attitude to have held down a school job.

Do you actually have nannying experience, it does not sound like it. Did you do lots of babysitting including daytimemsuch as at weekends, where it was just you and the children?

I agree with the others, you need training. I am a male nanny and it is very hard to sell yourself to parents, having training certificates and verifiable experience will help a lot. Volunteer at places, youth groups for example.

I entered nannying relatively late I suppose having worked in IT Support. I went part time at work and did a full-time college course (2 days on placement, 3 days college). These days there are distance learning courses but you do need to be involved in a childcare setting for many courses. So if you really want to change job, then you need to either leave the current one or go part-time if that is an option. Financially can you do that? Do you have enough savings to support you for a couple of years?

What about actually becoming a childminder yourself? My DH is a childminder and loves it!

I employed a 22 year old male nanny with no paid experience once, and he turned out to be one of the best nannies we've had. So take heart! He worked afterschool only, and was studying in the mornings.
Agree that some basic training would look better on your CV. It would make you look like you're serious about the change of career.

How about training on placement or hopefully while fully employed in a nursery or school? I did my NVQ III in 9 months while working at a day care nursery and got paid. You don't need to be qualified. I think to find a nanny job you may need to build a reputation/familiarity in your community as your best chance would be someone who knows you or knows of you. You'd also be most likely to find a position with older kids so could apply for voluntary or paid teaching assistant work and do sports coaching or scouts etc while training, then hopefully within a year you'd be qualified and trusted.