Retraining in Early Years (Scotland)

[llibrollibre]

Hi, I thought I'd add this here rather than in the Mature Study forum as I need Scotland-specific answers!

I'm considering a career change and was wondering if it's worth considering retraining in Early Years.

I'm nearly 40 & have an unrelated first degree & masters but I have relevant experience necessary to get on the HNC Childhood Practice course, so I could start out as a Practioner and go from there. My son had a wonderful ante-pre and pre-school experience and it increased his confidence enormously.

What's it like working in this field at the moment, given the expansion in hours?
Do you feel you are making an impact?
Do you feel that later getting a postgrad is worth it?
It seems like there's a lot of scope for career progression, even if it means no longer directly working with children.

Any insights welcome! Thanks!

Anyone? 😅

I refrained and loved it. I was germ time though and for non work related reasons have had to give it up. I really did love it though it was my dream job. Hard work but very rewarding

It's good to hear a positive perspective, thanks!

'germ time' typo could be appropriate too 😄

🤣🤦‍♀️

You need @Groovee
Haven't seen her on here recently

Thanks! I'll look up some of her previous posts.

Hi

The blooming app no longer works and it’s long winded to log in lol.

I’ve been qualified for 25 years. This years cohort has been the hardest I’ve ever had. The fall out of lockdown, the expansion of hours. Staff absence has been awful when the majority of staff went down with covid and no supply staff but the LA refusing to let us close. It was hard going. But we’re through it now.

I work in a term time school nursery. We’re fortunate to have a decent sized staff now. We used to only have 4 and now have 7. It makes a huge difference to how we spread ourselves out to engage the children in fabulous learning experiences. We also don’t have teachers in nursery in Edinburgh. But there is scope for progression with your BA in Childhood practice. I’ve gone sideways more with playboxes training and this year I became a Bookbug Session leader with the view to getting that parental engagement back within nursery. Stay and play has been a bit challenging with parents working. I’d love to do my MSc in Play Therapy. But although it’s through Queen Margaret Uni, the in uni days are with a charity in Glasgow.

Outdoor learning is a huge thing from Education Scotland. We have 2 full days outdoors in all weathers and aim to go to the woods too.

There is an excellent group on fb called Scottish Nursery/Early years staff.

I would recommend reading Realising the Ambition:Being Me. It’s what my setting aims to be for each child.

My favourite part of this year has been teaching the children a song and them performing it at the school Jubilee concert. They got up and danced and sang their hearts out.

There are a lot of jobs out there just now. The sector is struggling when LA’s pay so much more than PVI settings due to the LA not funding the 30 hours well. For me, it’s always been about finding the right setting. Just keep trying to find the place for you. My current team encourage each other so much and that’s what a good team does.

Any other questions feel free to pm me.

I work in nursery and have been qualified for 10 years. The past couple of years it has been very tough for qualified staff in my setting. Covid was a main factor, staff absences causing rooms to be over ratio and staff becoming very stressed. Can't seem to get very many students in that actually want to do the job which again makes the job more difficult for qualified staff. There are students who obviously want to do the job but are unfortunately becoming very far and few between.

When ratios and all staff are in it is a very different situation and the things that you want and need to get done are actually getting done, though the back log of stuff can be a bit much.

Alot of reading of documents is needed as pp said and realising the ambition is what settings are using.

I enjoy working in a nursery but it's definitely not something I can see myself doing for another 5/10 years.

I'm so sorry for not replying sooner!! Life got in the way!

Thank you both for all the information and insight. I can imagine how hard it was coming back after lockdowns, and with staff shortages. All of you education and childcare staff have done such stellar work throughout the whole time.

There are always so many jobs going in my LA and the surrounding ones, which I guess is both positive and negative.

I was also wondering whether you feel respected as early learning/childcare practitioners? So many caring professions, especially when caring for children, are undervalued and misunderstood, which is a reflection of our backwards priorities as a society. Just wondering what people currently in the field think.

I will read the document you both mention as well, thank you.

If you are willing to do qualifications you should find it easy to move up. We run an asc and getting qualified staff and managers is hard at the moment and we are actively encouraging qualifications and training.

If you get your SVQ3 or equivalent then because you already have a degree you will be eligible for entry to the level 9 pda childhood practice, which only takes 2 years part time and makes you a qualified manager.

Oooh I didn't know about the PDA route, thanks!

It's a bit of a game changer if you fancy the management route. We've supported several staff through it now and they've all really enjoyed it, albeit with some swearing along the way.