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How to guide

Developing a strategic action plan for skills among low qualified people in the Early Learning and Childcare sector

Authors: Ronald McQuaid and Aleksandra Webb, Stirling Management School,

University of Stirling, UK

WHY READ THIS?

The guide focuses upon ways of gathering information about the sector and its skills that help generate better co-operation and joint working among key public, private and third-sector actors. It offers strategic recommendations, especially for policy makers interested in employment, skills development and social inclusion policies, related to the employability of low qualified people in Early Learning and Childcare. The strategic actions presented here are based on project’s findings and recommendations that could help improve the attractiveness of the ELC sector, as well as support the development of professionals currently working in this sector. Moreover, most of these strategies are transferable to the other sectors of opportunity identified by the REPLAY-VET project which often have similar challenges such as gender segregated employment, lack of attraction to professionals due to the pay, condition & image of the sector and low level of entrepreneurship.

CHALLENGES AND NEEDS ADDRESSED BY THIS GUIDE

Lack of information on skills, skills development and career pathways among low qualified people in the ELC sector

The sectors most likely to provide opportunities for lower qualified people are mainly in the caring sectors in many countries, due to demographic and policy factors. Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland is a particular example of growth due to government policies to expand free childcare provision, with up to an estimated 20,000 additional staff required by 2020 to meet the new demand. Skills Development Scotland facilitated the development of a Sector Skills Plan (SSP) for ELC in 2018 that informs this guide. Challenges identified by SSP include gathering of relevant labour market

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information on the sector and using this to create labour market intelligence that should underpin all actions aimed to improve skills, training, employment and employment opportunities, especially for the low qualified or low skilled. Specific issues include: identifying the scale and characteristics of employment in the sector and the different parts of the sector; profiling employment and how it varies between types of employer (public, private and third sector, the former often with better pay, conditions and training and thus having a greater ability to attract scarce employees for other employers); and identifying the future and present skills requirements of the sector.

Agreeing a strategic action plan

The key challenges of the ELC sector include: the need for a more diversified workforce (for instance, currently the vast majority of employees are females); a significant expansion of training opportunities for new entrants to the sector as the demand for new employees is likely to require large numbers of people to move from other sectors into ELC; and the requirement for the ongoing development of the skills of existing employees to match the growing appetite for the professionalisation of the sector.

A clear strategic direction, with concrete actions, is required in order to attract a more diverse workforce into the ELC sector, both at entry level from education/training and from those working in other sectors or returning to work after a break. It is also required to maintain and improve the current and future skills of the workforce, so they can continue to provide and improve the quality of services to children. This can also assist in the greater professionalisation of the workforce and improve the currently relatively low perception of the sector as a place to work and develop a career with clear progression opportunities.

There are clear concerns about the level of resources available for increasing and improving ELC provision and subsequent employment (see the Audit Scotland and House of Commons reports below). A strategic overview of employment and infrastructure costs can raise awareness of the need to properly fund ELC, particularly during the period of its expansion. There may be a need for maintaining, or increasing, if necessary, levels of public funding for an adequately resourced ELC sector.

Need for direction and focus for stakeholders in developing skills

In order to get efficient and effective action to improve the key issues facing the current and future labour force, better working relations and strategic alignment may be needed between multiple actors (on both the labour and skills supply and demand sides). Specific issues include: helping to provide appropriate forum, direction

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and diversity

and focus to responses by stakeholders on the skills challenges for the sector; agreeing a framework for targeting resources needed to provide suitable skills development provision; help engaging and bringing together the key stakeholders (e.g. employers, skills providers, trades unions, the public sector, parents) on both the labour and skills supply and demand sides, to support effective improvements in the sector.

RECOMMENDATIONS

There are many strategies that are being adopted or recommended in order to improve the attractiveness of the ELC sector:

When considering labour market information on the ELC sector, a

comprehensive approach should be taken to the development of the

strategic action plan, including: an analysing of the characteristics of the

sector and the employment associated with the sector now and its future

(this should involve key actors, such as employers, social partners, trainers,

the public sector and users, especially parents from a wide range of socio-

economic backgrounds); a review of the skills needs (this should involve

active partnerships with multi-stakeholder groups associated with the

sector skills); identification of demand priorities for skills to enable the

growth and development of the sector and the skills of its workforce (this

should involve sector leadership groups); testing the views with the

industry stakeholders; assessing supply-side constraints (this should involve

the skills agencies, trainers, trades unions etc.); ensuring buy-in from key

stakeholders for the strategy and actions; and wider open and transparent

dissemination of the strategy.

A suitable form of system-wide governance should be incorporated,

recognising the limitations to co-ordination among public bodies and

differing stakeholders’ interests and focuses. The development of the

strategic action plan may incorporate multi-level (national, regional and

local public and other bodies), multi-stakeholder (discussed above) and

multi-dimensional elements (the latter supporting the integration of skills,

training/educational demand and supply, and high quality childcare).

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Actions may need to help raise the professional status of workers in ELC and help the sector and its workers to overcome the perceived low value and respect problems. This may require positive promotion and publicity around the career benefits of ELC employment, e.g. clear career progression routes, and ‘fair work’ pay and conditions. It may also involve recognising that many childcare jobs may have low qualifications, but are actually highly skilled and perhaps considering using terms such as ‘early years educators’ for some staff. Other factors to be promoted may include such things as showing the high job satisfaction levels with the work itself and opportunities for good work-life balance.

A strategic action plan should help improve the level of skills in the sector, including considering: raising training standard expectations and practices; paid-release for training; involving all social actors (employers, NGOs, public sector and unions) in supporting a strong training framework for staff in the sector; including a strong role of a mentor throughout all career transitions (e.g. high school-college, or college-labour market and in the workplace); and promoting a ‘fair work’ ethos in the sector. Overall, strong support for lifelong learning opportunities for existing staff may be needed to help them increase their skills, better adapt to changes, achieve career progression, and help the sector avoid retention problems. There is a need for strengthening the provision of flexible training options (including FE placements) to enable people to take opportunities in the sector. Training must be available for public, private and third organisations and not just primarily focused on one area of the sector (often the public-side of sector). It is important to meet the quality training expectation and maintain availability and standards for all ELC staff. The importance of maintaining or increasing levels of public funding for those seeking to work in the expanded sector needs consideration, especially increasing employers’ support and contributions towards training. There should be a concerted effort to remove financial barriers for career changers especially when needing to retrain while looking after their own families, or where the place of work or training is far from home and access might be an issue. Specific skills gaps found have included a low level of numeracy skills and the ability to pass on numeracy skills to children; and competence in a formal assessment of children among some. The ELC expansion plan needs to try to avoid unintended consequences, such as the danger of creating a two-tier system with differences in training

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opportunities and terms and conditions between groups of workers, such as public and private workers and among workers within an organisation (e.g. introducing qualified teachers may be paid more, and have a higher status etc., but little ELC training, but may get preference for further training). Suitable levels of employer contributions to training should be encouraged.

Actions are needed to recruit and retain an adequate, high quality, diversified and committed workforce to meet current and projected needs, through reducing recruitment barriers, providing new routes into ELC employment and increasing the diversity (especially of gender) among the workforce. All components of the strategic action plan are likely to influence potential rectuiment and retention of the required workforce. Sector wide recruitment campaigns may be required that present realistic opportunities to school leavers and workers in othere sectors and non-traditional employees. Removing potential barriers and effectively promoting the many routes into the profession need to be considered (Vocational Qualifications, FE/college training, Higher Education, employer-based etc.) and there is a need for flexible FE and training option, such as part-time childcare courses. Care must be taken through a sytematic approach not to potentially undermine other parts of the childcare system, such as childminders who might be affected by changes elsewhere, such as increased free childcare through Kindergarten.

BEST PRACTICES AND USEFUL LINKS

Skills Development Scotland Skills Investment Plan for the Early Learning and

Caring sector: this is the analysis of the characteristics of employment and

skills in the ELC sector and plans for improving these.

http://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/44206/early-learning-

and-children-sip-digital.pdf

A parent’s guide to the childcare and Early Learning system and provision in

Scotland: this describes the different types of childcare available and funding

or other support available. http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/reports/e-

hubs/childcare-in-scotland-a-parents-guide

Audit Scotland report on increased ELS provision: identifies potential funding

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(staffing and infrastructure such as buildings) issues with plans for expanding

ELC provision. http://www.audit-

scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2018/nr_180215_early_learning.pdf

Parents’ Experiences of childcare in Scotland (Audit Scotland): gives examples

of the real experiences of parents in trying to get good quality childcare for

their children. http://www.audit-

scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2018/nr_180215_early_learning_supp.pdf

House of Commons Report on Childcare (2018): lists discussions of the

economic impact of the lack of adequate childcare and the advantages and

problems of various childcare funding related policies, including tax credit and

free childcare.

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmtreasy/757/757.pdf

REPLAY-VET website:

http://regionallabourmarketmonitoring.net/?rlmmproject=replay-vet and for

Scotland: https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties-and-services/stirling-management-

school/our-research/research-areas/management-work-and-organisation/replay-vet/

BACKGROUND

The guide is based on the conclusions of the triple helix group carried out in Scotland and published data by Skills Development Scotland (a national skills agency), within the framework of the EU Erasmus + REPLAY-VET project. It analysed barriers to a greater labour market inclusion of people with lower qualifications in the Early Learning and Childcare (LEC) sector and identified good practices for further replication and implementation. Interviews and three working groups were coordinated by the project partner, the University of Stirling and included the Scottish Government, vocational training providers, local authorities, trades unions, companies and social entities.

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an

endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be

held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.