Decline in uptake of early years teacher training due to poor pay, study finds
Tristan Donovan
Friday, April 20, 2018
The government must raise the status of early years teachers to prevent a brain drain from the sector, according to the educators' union Voice and the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (Pacey).
In a joint report the two organisations highlight how fewer people are joining courses leading to early years teacher status.
When the role was first introduced in 2013 more than 2,300 people enrolled in early years initial teacher training courses, compared with just 595 in autumn 2017.
The report argues that the decline is in part due to early years teachers not being treated as equals to primary school teachers - a situation that limits their career opportunities, pay and conditions.
An online survey carried out for the report showed that 64 per cent of early years teachers had found it hard to find graduate-level jobs in early years and 82 per cent of current students are pessimistic about their employment prospects.
The report calls for the Department for Education (DfE) to reinstate the goal of having a graduate leader in every early years setting, which was introduced by the Labour government in 2004 but subsequently dropped.
The DfE should also replace the early years teacher status with an early years specialist route within qualified teacher status training.
"It is simply wrong that an early years teacher working in a private, voluntary and independent setting cannot earn the same or enjoy the same recognition as a nursery school or reception teacher - despite the fact that they are delivering the same curriculum and have undergone comparable training," the report states.
Liz Bayram, chief executive of Pacey, said the situation puts children's education at risk: "Our children are losing talented early years teachers who understand the uniqueness of a child's early development and are key to helping close the gap for disadvantaged children. This has to stop."
Deborah Lawson, the general secretary of Voice, added: "Recent research has pointed to a downward trend in qualification levels, as settings experience high staff turnover because they cannot afford to retain their experienced staff, invest in their training and development - or even recruit them in the first place."
Other recommendations in the report include requiring primary school teachers to undergo specialist early years training in order to teach reception classes and giving early years settings extra funding to ensure all of them can employ at least one early years teacher.
A spokesperson for the DfE said: "We recognise the skills that early years teachers bring to the early years workforce. We continue to support graduates into the sector through bursaries and employer incentives, as well as developing the skills of those already working in the sector and we are considering a range of approaches to supporting graduates in the early years workforce."
The spokesperson added that the government's recent social mobility action plan included £20m of funding to support professional development in pre-reception settings and noted that employers rather than the DfE are responsible for setting the pay and conditions of early years teachers.
The DfE's Early Years Workforce Strategy, published in March 2017, said the government would consider allowing early years teachers to lead teaching in maintained schools and to receive qualified teacher status.
No further announcements on these proposals have been made since.