Jobs in Childcare

Childcare refers to supervising or caring for children under the age of eight years. It is also called early childhood education or early years education due to an increased awareness of the impact of early experiences of a child on his or her psychological development. With governments spending more on creating early childhood workforce to improve the quality of support young children receive; a lot of jobs in childcare are opening up.

Jobs in childcare are diverse and offer different roles and working environments. On a broader level, jobs in childcare can be divided into two categories – home-based care such as nannies and family care and centre-based care such as day-care and preschool.

Different levels of qualifications are needed to work at various stages of career in early years and there is a range of training and education available to help you qualify and pursue part-time or full-time jobs in childcare.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council regulates the statutory framework and qualifications norms required for various jobs in childcare in United Kingdom. Training starts from Foundation Level (also called Level 1) to Foundation Degree (Level 5). Level 6 is the gold standard for people working with children and is called EYPS or Early Years Professional Status.

Working with children can be a rewarding one but almost all jobs in childcare demand high energy levels. While it is fun playing with young children, you need to take your job seriously. You must always keep in mind that their parents have entrusted them to you and you are responsible for their safety and well-being.

Work as a Nanny

Becoming a nanny can be a satisfying career and it lets you contribute to a child’s learning and development. The responsibilities of a nanny may vary from one household to another depending on how you negotiate with the child’s parents but the basics remain the same. Normally you are expected to provide care for the child, mentally stimulate them by playing and reinforce appropriate discipline. You may also be required to cloth them, prepare meals and do the laundry.

Although nannies are largely female, male nannies or mannies are also not uncommon. These jobs can be part-time or full-time or on a live-in or live-out basis. Many parents and nanny placement agencies prefer you to have a professional childcare qualification such as Level 3 Diploma for jobs in childcare as defined by Children’s Workforce Development Council.

Work as a Childminder

The roles and responsibilities a childminder are similar to a nanny except that they work in their homes instead of the child’s home. They must have a professional qualification recognised by the local authority and must hold a paediatric first-aid certificate. They must register themselves with OFSTED or the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. A childminder can only take care of a maximum of six children.

Work in Playgroups or Pre-schools

Pre-schools provide early education to children aged two to five years. They primarily focus on building social and educational skills in children through play and play-based activities. Pre-school education improves the confidence in the young children and helps them adapt faster to a school environment. This segment offers the most number of jobs in childcare.

Playgroups generally operate for about two to three hours during school term time. Playleaders or the people who take care of children in preschools are required to have at least a Level 3 qualification as defined for jobs in childcare by Children’s Workforce Development Council.

Work in Nurseries

Nurseries may operate as voluntary or community organisations or private business or as a part of a school. They vary greatly in size, handling about 15 children to around 100 children. There is greater emphasis on educational play and child development than childcare alone.

Normally you can join a nursery as a trainee nursery assistant without a childcare qualification but to progress further in the career you need a minimum Level 3 qualification. With adequate experience and proper qualifications, you can move up to become a qualified nursery assistant, supervisor and finally a manager of the nursery.

The Manny Poppins Phenomenon

Childcare is no more a career for the girls. Male nannies or mannies, as they are known, are increasingly invading what can almost exclusively be considered as a female turf. Working mothers are increasingly open to the idea of hiring mannies rather than nannies.

According to a survey, eight of ten parents replied that hiring a manny is more acceptable today than it was ten years ago. 94 percent of respondents said they would surely consider hiring a manny to take care of their children. And about 20 percent said someone they knew actually had a manny.

According to an October 2009 survey by Children’s Workforce Development Council, mannies form a miniscule 1 percent of over 30,000 registered nannies working in England. Though this number is small, what is worth noting is that more males are looking at childcare as a long term career option and have a strong commitment towards working with children.

Another trend in nanny business is mushrooming of agencies specialising in male nannies. Though there is a societal prejudice over males entering childminding business, the manny population is on a steady rise.

Some celebrities like Britney Spears, Jemima Khan and Gwyneth Paltrow are among those who hired the services of a manny and certainly had the media talk about it but there is also a general surge in the public interest about manny services. So why is there a sudden interest in manny poppins phenomenon?

Matthew Black, who has been in manny business for eight years, said that the threat of an attractive female spending so much time in the house is an issue to working mothers. Male nannies, on the other hand, do not offer any titillation to fathers and do not stoke the natural female insecurity, jealousy and suspicion in anxious mothers.

Mothers are also happy that their boys are at more ease with a manny than a nanny. Mannies do not mind to go out, get a little dirty and play with the kids a lot more than nannies who just tolerate the boys. Young boys relate to their female nannies as an extension of their mom rather than simply a girl. But with a manny, it’s different. He is like their elder brother and the kids tend to be completely at ease with him.

“The attitudes are really changing. Earlier when someone hears the words male nanny, the first thing that would probably come to their mind is paedophilia. Such popular anxiety is lessening and now people view a manny with more respect and admiration. The bottom line is, man or woman, anyone can do anything to your kid. To think that only men can be sexual predators and female nannies are safe can give you a false sense of security but this is not true,” Black said.

He has a point. The idea that male nannies might be a sexual threat to children is overblown. A 1988 study by Crimes Against Children Research Centre at New Hampshire found that women are more likely to abuse children at daycares than males. Another 1995 academic research paper found that 23 percent of female sexual abusers were babysitters and 8 percent were teachers, only 8 percent of the male sexual abusers were babysitters and none were teachers. A 1997 BBC report found that 86 percent of sexual- abuse victims were not believed when they complained that their abusers were actually women.

Male nannies realise that they are entering what is traditionally a female bastion and hence put a lot more effort than nannies in doing their job. They usually have more education and experience and hence a more verifiable history than nannies. The natural hesitation over male nannies also drives agencies to conduct a more thorough background check and ensures only the most qualified come out on the top.

Homework: For and Against

A couple of weeks ago during an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live with his wife Ruth Lansford, the broadcaster Eamonn Holmes said that he absolutely “hated” homework. Ruth didn’t offer her opinion, but you sensed she didn’t think homework was such a bad thing. The radio presenter laughed along with Eamonn’s rant and pointed out to him that supplementary work at home was thought to be a good thing for children, but his words fell on deaf ears. Eamonn argued that homework put even more pressure on parents. They arrived home from a busy day only to have to sit down and help their kids with homework that more often than not, they were unable to do themselves. Here, his wife Ruth agreed, she was useless at maths and Eamonn couldn’t get his head around geography! Homework, said Eamonn, “should be banned”.

The benefits
So where do you stand on the homework debate? It is said that supplementing school work reinforces what has been learnt during the school day. And how well children perform at homework does, to a large extent, depend on parental support. In households where parents are disinterested in homework or school in general, children are less likely to complete the tasks expected of them or to score very highly. Parental backing is crucial then if the lessons taught at school are to be drilled home at home.

Parents have pressure enough
These days, with more and more parents working, it does become difficult to set aside time for homework. It can feel like an additional chore, to echo Mr Holmes’ remarks. Anne-Marie, mother to Zara, 9 and Rory, 7, says that “It takes me all I can do to get a meal on the table when I get in from work, never mind finding the time to get homework done”. Often children have to be cajoled into doing the work having already spent the day at school. She adds: “We find it another stress: arguing with the kids that it has to be done and arguing with each other [her partner] about whose turn it is to do it”. Her sentiments will resonate with parents in a similar situation. Although you encourage your child to do well at school, homework becomes more work for you at home.

Time out
Others argue that children spend enough time at school; after school is for playing sports or participating in other activities or simply just hanging out with their friends. One parent we spoke to felt that children at least ought to be given a break from homework at weekends. Of course, older children with exams on the horizon will need to do homework to supplement school projects and for revision purposes. But perhaps children of primary school age should be allowed free time once school is out.

For and Against
From a purely academic point of view, it is said that giving primary school children homework can help develop good study habits and foster positive attitudes to schoolwork. It may also improve their academic achievement. The difference in test scores and grades between students who do more homework and those who do less increases as students move up in years. However, as one of the parents we surveyed said “They [children] will know all about the world of work in adulthood. Homework just prolongs the school day”. In conclusion then, if school days are to be the happiest of their lives maybe it’s not wise to pile on the homework!

Pink Princesses and Mucky Boys

Which one are you?
Perhaps you’re one of those parents (is it mostly mums?) who encourage their little girl to dress up as a princess or a fairy; nowadays it’s not unusual to see girls wearing these kinds of costumes, particularly at Birthday parties and other celebrations. Or perhaps you’re a parent who has decided to take a stand of sorts. You’re determined to see to it that your little girl isn’t given a princess dress and you encourage her to muck about and play with trucks as well as dolls; you say you don’t want her becoming too much of a “girlie” girl. This approach to bringing up girls might not influence their behaviour as much as you think. Recent research indicates that traditional stereotypes of what it is to be a girl or a boy are deeply ingrained in our culture.

This article takes a closer look at this study, undertaken in Ireland, and concludes by suggesting how parents and childcarers can help children pursue interests they enjoy regardless of whether they are considered “girls” or “boys” activities. First, let’s look at the lengths a Canadian couple has gone to in order to ensure that their new baby is “free” to behave as s/he wishes, unconstrained by society’s expectations of how s/he ought to be.

A “gender-free” baby
In May this year, a couple from Canada decided not to reveal their newborn’s gender to anyone, including the grandparents. They said they wished for their child, Storm, to choose who and what s/he wanted to be. Their decision, they said, was “a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm’s lifetime (a more progressive place?).” A step too far? Many of us probably think so. However, while it does seem far-fetched that a baby could be influenced by gender stereotypes, a recent Irish study indicates that girls and boys have well-established ideas about what is suitable behaviour for their sex and that this starts well before the age of nine “probably in the cradle”.

Gender identity
Traditional stereotypes of boys playing football and girls wearing princess dresses are as pervasive as ever, according to research into Ireland’s nine-year old population. In general, the boys who were interviewed explained how other boys “played football and rugby” while girls “did ballet”. Only boys said they wanted to be chefs and footballers, and only girls wanted to be hairdressers and nurses. Even though the research was carried out in Ireland, we can assume that children in the UK have similar attitudes, given that our cultures are so alike.

And while the study’s authors acknowledge that biology plays a part in influencing girls and boys activities, with boys being physically stronger than girls, “biology does not explain a disposition to like pink and to be able to manage a Hoover [a vacuum cleaner]. It doesn’t explain why boys see school as more for girls and why all boys seem to feel obliged to be fanatical about football.”

Social and cultural influences
Influences such as fashion and television as well as attitudes of their parents/elders are no doubt responsible for children’s concepts of gender. The way in which women and men are portrayed by our consumer culture makes it difficult for parents – and by implication, their children – to avoid stereotyping. When babies are first born they are met by a parade of pink or a barrage of blue. And it continues thus. While we may consider ourselves liberated from antiquated notions of what a woman or a man “is” or “does”, traditional stereotypes still hold sway as the Irish study highlights.

Does it matter?
What are the implications for our children now and in the future? When one considers that figures for the UK as well as Ireland show that girls’ participation rates in sport falls well short of boys’ and that girls outperform boys in education then findings such as these give cause for some concern.

How can we help?
While it is not possible for us as parents and childcarers to change the one-dimensional versions of female and male proffered by our consumer culture, we can do our best not to impose limits on children as to what they can or cannot do. This involves giving your girls the option of playing with toys or participating in activities that are usually associated with boys and vice versa. As the co-director of the Irish study, Prof. Sheila Greene puts it, “When stereotypes are given full rein, children’s choices and their freedom to be the person they want to be can be curtailed.” We may not go so far as to hide the gender of our children, but we can help our children explore every aspect of themselves regardless of gender.