ESF Skills for Growth: Education – Early Years Workforce Upskilling

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) looked to procure a lead organisation to deliver training which will support skills challenges facing businesses within the Education sector across GM, particularly those working in an Early Years setting. The Education sector impacts on each of our lives and can often determine future career paths and progression. It is also a huge employer within the region - employing almost 120,000 people - crucial to GM both as a provider of opportunities to work and as a facilitator for entering other sectors. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the sector hard, with nurseries, schools, colleges, and universities all experiencing periods of closure; forcing them to rapidly develop new ways of learning. The sector will continue to play a key role in the future of GM. Its workforce of today is developing our workforces of tomorrow however, there are systemic problems across the sector exacerbated by immediate skill gaps, highlighted in the Industry Labour Market & Skills Intelligence Report, which must be resolved. Improving early years outcomes and school readiness levels is a priority in the Greater Manchester Strategy 2021-2031, the GM Children's Health and Wellbeing Framework , Population Health Plan , and the GM Children and Young Peoples' Plan . The early years workforce across GM is varied and comprises of practitioners, teachers, children's centre workers, family support workers, health visitors and social workers. Whilst some of these roles form part of the 'wider' Early Years workforce, they play an important role in improving outcomes of young children and their families. To realise the ambition to improve early years outcomes, the early years workforce must have the right skills and competencies to help children achieve their potential. Feedback from employers highlights particular challenges which this specification looks to address including: • Awareness of child development and the impact covid has had on this. Employers feel that the impact of the pandemic is now being felt, particularly with younger people whose social and academic development is behind what would be expected for their age. • SEND awareness and training for Early Years staff at Level 3+ • The need for flexible provision to meet the needs of both employers and employees, including evening and weekend learning. There should be an understanding that whilst staffing shortages and financial constraints remain - training staff is often difficult due to backfill costs when keeping to staffing ratios. • Accredited online learning. Practitioners in the sector have commented that they have accessed more training online than ever before; online courses should be accredited wherever possible. This opportunity was procured as a further competition under the Education, Work and Skills Flexible Procurement System and was ran as a restricted tender via the Chest.