Early years workforce
The expansion of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) will create thousands of high quality and well-paid jobs across Scotland
Recruiting and diversifying the ELC workforce
We have been running a national recruitment campaign to attract people to a career in ELC. See: https://childcarecareersscotland.scot/
And we have been working with the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland to create additional capacity in the college and work-based learning sectors to train the additional staff required for 2020.
As well as creating new employment opportunities, the expansion of funded ELC provides an opportunity to increase the diversity of the childcare workforce.
We are encouraging more men into childcare training through the £50,000 Men in Early Years Challenge Fund.
And we are funding a project to recruit more people from ethnic minority communities into ELC careers.
Investing in skills
Delivering a high quality early learning experience for children requires a dedicated, skilled and well-qualified workforce.
We have worked with Skills Development Scotland and other partners to develop a skills investment plan for the early learning and childcare sector.
In addition to building new workforce capacity, the plan focuses on actions needed to enhance the learning and development of existing and new workers.
A national early learning and childcare induction pack has also been developed to support new staff working in early learning and childcare.
This will provide consistent advice and information to all new staff to help them develop the skills and understanding they need in their role.
Pay and conditions
We understand the importance of promoting fair work practices across the ELC sector, including ensuring that staff are fairly remunerated.
Public sector staff working in ELC already receive the Living Wage, and we want to see all childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement across all sectors paid at least this from 2020.
To support this we will provide local authorities with sufficient funding to allow them to agree sustainable rates with funded providers in the private and third sectors.
We will also provide targeted advice and support to providers on implementing Fair Work practices.