Early Years Apprenticeship: A Nursery Manager’s Insight
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Vicky Reynolds is the Nursery Manager at AKS Nursery, part of AKS Lytham. Her staff, nursery and children have directly benefitted from United Learning’s Early Years Apprenticeship.
Describing her background, Vicky said: “I’ve worked at AKS Nursery for 16 years and seen it grow from 20 toddlers and 4 staff members to 167 children aged 0-4 years, and 27 staff members. My job role has therefore dramatically changed over the years, with our relatively new venture into apprenticeships being one of those changes.”
Vicky uses United Learning Apprenticeships both to hire apprentices and to train existing staff. She said: “We’ve recently taken on two apprentices who came to us externally from different career paths looking for something different. Another apprentice had a Level 3 Teaching Assistant qualification but wanted to go into nursery and become a room leader. After completing the Early Years Educator apprenticeship, they now understand a lot more pedagogy – as well as knowledge and skills that you can easily miss when you haven’t been doing the job from day one.”
“New apprentices bring a lot of passion about their new chosen career, which brings a breath of fresh air to the nursery,” said Vicky, explaining the benefits of apprentices. “For existing staff, the apprenticeship deepens their understanding and helps them to progress. All apprentices have job satisfaction and gain a further understanding about why they’re doing what they’re doing.”
Vicky added: “I also think we’ve benefitted from taking on a male apprentice. Early Years is mostly female dominated and there can be a stigma around males in the profession. It’s been amazing for us, with parents commenting that their children really enjoy him being there. The feeling is mutual too – as he often says how excited he is on a Sunday night to come to work the next day!”
Early Years recruitment hasn’t always been plain sailing, and Vicky credits apprenticeships for improving this. She said: “Apprenticeships have definitely helped our staff recruitment. Since Covid, the Early Years sector lost a lot of staff who were furloughed, found jobs elsewhere and chose not to return. As a result, we have found it difficult to increase recruitment levels, but the United Learning Apprenticeships programme has helped us a lot.”
Vicky lauded the support from the apprenticeships team, saying: “The team is great. They’re always there if you need them, are happy to answer any questions and are very amenable. Gavin is an amazing mentor and puts my staff at ease.”
“We have been supported from the minute we thought about taking on an apprentice and will definitely continue with them. It isn’t always about staff numbers; it’s about training the next people going into the workforce – and we’re glad to be a part of that.”
Interested in transforming your staff and school? Get in touch with our friendly and helpful team today to get started: courses@unitedlearning.org.uk.