Qualified vs. Unqualified Nursery Staff: What Do You Really Need?
A few thoughts on this – “what level do you need” is a question that comes up with every nursery agency cover booking every day.
I've worked in nursery recruitment cover staffing for 20 years. The first 15 years was in London where we had accounts with hundreds of nurseries right across the city, and now in West Yorkshire where we're earlier in our journey but we're seeing the same patterns.
Over the years I’ve interviewed and placed literally hundreds of nursery nurses and assistants. One thing I’ve learned is that knowledge is not the key driver of good feedback from managers. A candidate may recite 7 areas of learning, know safeguarding procedures back to front, but they might be cold fish in the rooms. Another candidate might struggle with some sections of the interview, they might not use the exact terminology. But they’re quick to laugh, they’re warm and empathetic, and when they get in rooms the feedback is that they made a difference and brightened everyone’s day.
Of course the ideal is someone with great knowledge and great interaction. But for emergency cover, I think 99% of managers would choose the person that arrives with a smile, gets on the floor, talks to the children, wipes noses and gets the cleaning done.
So if your ratios allow it, we think you’ll love our assistants as much as our qualified nursery practitioners.
Call us for a chat - our West Yorkshire office is 01133280668 and our new London office is 02033376363.
