Is it concerning that our nursery is advertising for temporary summer jobs?

[BQ91]

Just that really. Keep seeing them advertise on Facebook alongside an apprentice position with no requirements other than being friendly etc. someone had commented underneath that she wouldn’t feel good about sending her kids there and it’s planted a seed in my head as I send my children there. Am I over worrying?

Most nurseries are desperate for staff. Ours uses apprentices (who are brilliant) as well as temp staff to cover gaps. So long as the nursery worker is happy and good at interacting with my child - and there are enough qualified staff to maintain ratios - I wouldn't be worried about this at all.

I assume it’s for summer school holiday clubs.

they’re not going to be left completely alone with a bunch of 5-12 year olds,

Thanks so much for your replies, that’s reassuring!

I wouldn't worry about the apprenticeship position as a younger inexperienced person might have the qualities that make good nursery staff - patience, energy, enthusiasm

Temporary might be a good reason like someone is having an operation and needs 3 months off or something. Hopefully it will be filled by someone good like a university student who will want the job for their cv.

I’d assume that was for older (school) kids holiday clubs. Even if not, apprentices will
learn on the job and be supervised

Agree with PP. I imagine they need temporary staff to keep their ratios legal. So in and of itself that’s a good thing. Staff also need to start somewhere, you can’t expect every member of staff to be senior and some of those DS has bonded with best are young and enthusiastic. There is a serious shortage of childcare workers, our nursery is 20% smaller than it was a year ago because of this. Places are like gold dust around here, worsened in part because of the promise of “free” childcare hours but no more workers to implement it.

An apprenticeship position is standard - it’s an important route into an early years career.

Summer positions will be a holiday club. That’s why they’re temporary - it’s only going to operate during the summer holidays.

Yeah nurseries all over the country are really struggling to recruit at the moment, have a look at on indeed at all the nursery nurse jobs!
At my nursery we’ve had some great staff that weren’t qualified in childcare, some better than some of the qualified staff. If they enjoyed the job and wanted to stay in it longer term then we have always paid for them to do the qualifications. My nursery will also make sure every new staff member is trained in safeguarding and first aid, no matter how long they’re with us - perhaps that would be a question to ask yours.

Ah thanks so much for all your reassurance, amazing how one persons comment can just start my worrying!

Staff going on holiday, extra children for holiday club .....new apprentices for next year as others qualified.

It will be because of staffing issues or as the others have said, they provide holiday care too.
Legally they can't open unless they have the minimum ratio of qualified staff so I wouldn't worry.
I do agency work for nurseries and am offered more work than I can take on. There is a massive recruitment issue especially finding qualified staff.