NORTH EDINBURGH

CHILDCARE

TRAINING SERVICES

SERVICES FOR EMPLOYERS

CHILDCARE EMPLOYERS

WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?

This booklet outlines the services that North Edinburgh Childcare Training Services can offer to help you to meet your Recruitment and Staff Developmentneeds.

Section 1 –We can help you with Recruitment

  • Advertising your vacancies
  • Forwarding CVs from suitable applicants
  • Setting up interviews / working interviews
  • Setting up work trials

Section 2 –We can help you with Staff Development

  • Student placement opportunities
  • Self funded SVQ level 2 / 3 programmes (including information about accessing £200 via opening an Individual Learning Account and up to £891via applying for a Part Time Fee Grant)
  • Short course training programme (including information about accessing £200 via opening an Individual Learning Account)
  • First Aid training courses
  • Delivering our short courses exclusively to your staff team

SECTION 1

WE CAN HELP YOU WITH RECRUITMENT

Our successful Childcare Academy programme has now supported over 190 unemployed people to progress into jobs in the childcare sector.

Funded via Skills Development Scotland Training for Work programme and the City of Edinburgh Council Children & Families Workforce Development Fund our 12 month Childcare Academy programme incorporates the delivery of the SVQ Level 2 in Children’s Care Learning and Development, a comprehensive underpinning knowledge training programme and a long term work experience placement. 2 satisfactory references, a satisfactory PVG scheme membership and medical check are actively pursued for each Childcare Academy trainee who is accepted on to the programme.

On an annual basis we recruit up to 45 trainees to our Childcare Academy programme and a significant proportion of these are parents who are returning to work after having raised their own children. We therefore consistently have access to a pool ofmotivated, skilled and knowledgeable trainees who are eagerly pursuing employment opportunities in the childcare field.

Having successfully secured further funding from the State Street Foundation, 14 of our former Childcare Academy trainees are currently undertaking their SVQ Level 3 Children’s Care Learning and Development with us at no cost to themselves or their employer.

Whilst enabling former trainees to further develop their knowledge and skills, this opportunity will also enable trainees to meet the qualification requirements of the Scottish Social Services Council at Practitioner level. We continue to actively pursue funding from available sources to enable us to extend the same opportunities to other former Childcare Academy trainees in the future.

If you wish to recruit additional staff and are happy to consider applicants who are working towards their SVQ Level 2 Children’s Care Learning and Development, we would encourage you to approach us directly to allow us to help you to fill your vacancies from our Childcare Academy pool.The ways in which we can support you to fill your vacancies include:

Advertising your vacancies

Advertising your vacancies on our Jobs Board within our Training Suite and encouraging suitable trainees to contact you directly to request an application pack.

Forwarding CVs from suitable applicants

Forwarding CVs from suitable Childcare Academy trainees directly to you enabling you to look over these and select who you may wish to offer an interview.

Setting up interviews / working interviews

Setting up interviews for you including working interviews (where you may wish applicants to spend some time with the children in

your playroom to enable you to observe their skills in action).

All you need to do is tell us who you would like to interview and what dates and times you have available and we will do the rest.

Setting up work trials

Setting up work ‘trials’ where you may be interested in employing a specific trainee however would like the opportunity to try them out for a few days within your setting before formally offering them a post.

SECTION 2

WE CAN HELP YOU WITH STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Student placement opportunities

We are always keen to engage new settings in offering work placement opportunities to our Childcare Academy trainees.Our trainees come from all over the City andare interested in gaining experience in Early Years and Playwork settings.

Offering a work placement opportunity to a Childcare Academy trainee not only gives you access to another pair of hands but also presents existing staff with opportunities to develop their leadership, mentoring and management skills.

Most placements involve the trainee spending 4 days per week within your setting until they manage to successfully secure employment / complete their SVQ Level 2 qualification.

Trainees generally progress into employment within 26 weeks however others may take a little longer and could potentially be with you on placement for up to 9 months. The longer term nature of these placements ensures that the student gains a meaningful learning opportunity and offers consistency to the children and the setting.

Staff within your setting who wish to mentor a trainee (from our Childcare Academy or any other learning programme) may be interested in undertaking our ‘Mentoring Learners in the Workplace’ training session to support them to develop their knowledge and skillsin relation to this role (please see our short course training programmesection for further information).

If you wish to find out more about becoming a placement provider, please contact our Team Leader of Accredited TrainingFiona Williamson on 0131- 311-6928.

Self funded SVQ level 2 / 3 programmes

We have been delivering childcare qualifications on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council through Workforce Development Funding for many years now to support childcare staff to attain the qualifications they require to meet the registration requirements of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).

For the foreseeable future available Workforce Development Funding has been prioritised to meet the registration needs of Childcare Managers only.This means therefore that funding to support childcare staff who are required to undertake qualifications to meet the registrationrequirements of the SSSC at Practitioner and Support Worker level is now extremely limited.

In response to this situation, we are offering the opportunity for childcare staff to self fund their way through our quality SVQ programmes at the following competitive costs offering a range of payment options for your childcare staff to choose from:-

SVQ / Cost / Possible Subsidy / Available Payment Terms
SVQ Level 2 Children’s Care Learning and Development / £1,350 / Candidates may be
eligible to access
up to £200 towards
this cost by opening
an Individual Learning
Account with ILA Scotland / Payment over:-
  • 12 months = Initial payment of £105 + 11 x monthly payments of £95
  • 14 months = Initial payment of £97 + 13 x monthly payments of £81
  • 16 months = Initial payment of £85 + 15 x monthly payments of £71

SVQ Level 3 Children’s Care Learning and Development / £1,750 / Candidates may be eligible to access up to £891 towards the cost of their learning by applying for a part-time fee grant from the Student Award Agency for Scotland at the onset of the course and then again at the 12 month point. / Payment over:-
  • 6 months = Initial payment of £158.38 + 5 x monthly payments of £140
  • 9 months = Initial payment of £108.38 + 8 x monthly payments of £93.75
  • 12 months = Initial payment of £88.38 + 11 x monthly payments of £70.00

For more information about opening up an Individual Learning Account or applying for a Part Time Fee Grant to support you to undertake a qualification through our self funded route, please contact our Training Administrator Kim Weir on 0131 311 6931 or email

Please visit our website at for more detailed information about our self funded SVQ programmes or contact our Team Leader of Accredited Training Fiona Williamson on 0131 311 6928 or r more information.

Short course training programme

Why not have a look at our successful Short Course Training Programme which offers a diverse range of opportunities for childcare workers and managers to enhance their occupational knowledge and skills.

Our programme incorporates the delivery of the following courses and we continuously develop new courses to meet the changing needs of staff within the sector:-

  • Investigative play for the over 3’s
  • How to be crafty with arts
  • Assessing risk
  • 9 features of pre-birth to 3 – play and environment
  • How to promote learning through circle time in the early years
  • Are you challenged by behaviour management?
  • Child protection: support worker / practitioner responsibilities
  • Child protection: managers responsibilities
  • Supporting children’s literacy in the early years
  • Mentoring learners in the workplace
  • Support and supervision: an introduction
  • Building effective teams
  • Emergency First Aid at Work
  • Emergency First Aid at Work (with additional paediatric focus)
  • Curriculum for Excellence: Citizenship, Enterprise & Eco
  • Whizz… Fizz… Bang! Fun science activities for Out of School Club Practitioners

First Aid training courses

We have also developed our capacity to deliver the one day accredited Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) course and the Emergency First Aid at Work (with additional paediatric focus) course by becoming an Approved Centre with Qualsafe Awards (Awarding Body for the delivery of accredited First Aid qualifications).

Short Course Costs

Courses are delivered from our Training Suite in North Edinburgh Childcare and course costs are set at £45 per head with the exception of the Emergency First Aid at Work courses which are set at £65 per head (includes a copy of the‘First Aid Made Easy’ or ‘Paediatric First Aid Made Easy’ manual, lunch and approved certificate).

Individuals may be able to get help towards the cost of our courses if they open an Individual Learning Account (ILA) with Skills Development Scotland (ILAs are for people who are 16 or over and living in Scotland). You can apply for an ILA if you are not in education, do not have a degree or above and are not taking part in a National Training Programme (Modern Apprenticeship, Get Ready for Work or Training for Work). You must also have an income of £22,000 a year or less, or be on benefits to be eligible to get up to £200 towards the costs of learning or training. Visit or call 0808 100 1090 today to request your application pack.

For more detailed information about our short courses and an up to date programme please visit our website at

If you would like to book a place on any of our short courses, to find out more about opening an Individual Learning Account or would like to add your contact details to our mailing list, please contact ourTraining Administrator Kim Weir on 0131-311-6931 or email

Delivering our short courses exclusively to your staff team

If you have more than 8 members of staff who you feel would benefit from undertaking one of our short courses together as a team, we would be happy to deliver the training exclusively to your organisation within your own premises or from our fully equipped Training Suite here at North Edinburgh Childcare.

To support organisations who wish to take up this opportunity we have introduced ‘group rates’ to reduce the costs involvedas follows:-

Numbers of staff / Half day rate (up to 3 ½ hours delivery) / Full day rate (up to 7 hours delivery)
Up to 8 (minimum number in attendance required to enable us to deliver training out with) / £360 / £680
Up to 16 / £540 / £760
Up to 24 / £600 / £860
Over 25 / Price will be negotiated on a case by case basis

RATE OF DELIVERY FOR EFAW COURSES

Monday to Friday costs

Group costs stand at £525.00 per group for a maximum of 12 people (payable irrespective of the number in attendance on the day).

N.B. This price does not include lunch.

Weekend costs

Group costs stand at £585.00 per group for a maximum of 12 people (payable irrespective of the number in attendance on the day).

N.B. This price does not include lunch.

Please also note that a non refundable deposit of £100 is required to secure any booking for external training.

You may be able to access a contribution towards the cost of this type of training via Flexible Training Opportunities Funding from Skills Development Scotland. Further information about this funding can be found on their website at

If you are interested in this type of training, please contact our Training Manager Gill Dudgeon on 0131-311-6934 or email to discuss your needs.

NORTH EDINBURGH CHILDCARE

TRAINING SERVICES

18b Ferry Road Avenue

EDINBURGH

EH4 4BL

Telephone Number: 0131 332 8001

Fax Number: 0131 315 4420

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