These expectations might be based on personal choices and experiences and might be different from someone else's expectations.

Your employer will have expectations of you too.

These will be based on the needs of the the Early Years sector or the needs of the business.

It is important to manage your expectations, but it is also important to understand and meet the expectations of your employer.

Meeting your employers expectations or even exceeding them will likely see you become a valued member of staff, and someone who the employer will want to retain.

• Timekeeping and Punctuality

• Working Relationships with Colleagues

• Attendance

• Impact of non-attendance

• Attitude

• Appearance

At Access Training we want to give you every chance to succeed on your Early Years apprenticeship and understand that starting work can be a very different experience from being at school or college.

It has been identified that 16-18 year old Early Years apprentices are more at risk of not completing or achieving their apprenticeship than older apprentices.

We don't want this to happen, so the aim of this resource is to make you more aware of the Early Years sector and the world of work that you are now entering, so that you can be better prepared to deal with things when they happen.

There are 5 sections to this training resource which we have called "Childcare Nuggets".

"Something that a person has said or written that is very true or very wise"

As you'll work through this resource you'll find 5 separate Childcare Nuggets designed to make you more aware of the Childcare Sector, your Early Years apprenticeship, your employer, how to behave and how to avoid mistakes which could lead to your apprenticeship ending.

You are responsible for the actions you take and therefore must be responsible for the impact of your actions on other people.

This impact could be either positive or negative.

In the previous sections we covered the impact of poor timekeeping and attendance on yourself, other members of staff, the children and the parents.

Some other scenario's are below:

If you change employers mid-way through your apprenticeship this can cause problems, and you wouldn't be classed as an apprentice until everything was in place at your new employer.

You are of course free to change employers if you are unhappy with your current employer, but you need to be aware that this can take time to sort out.

You will be required to go on what is called a "Break in Learning" until your new employer has completed all of the necessary agreements to start you as an apprentice.

You need to be aware of the following:

1. You are committing to an apprenticeship, which is work based learning.

2. The apprenticeship agreement that you signed at the start is with the named employer, and as soon as you leave that employment, that agreement is terminated.

3. The apprenticeship with your new employer does not resume until all administration and paperwork has been completed, which could take several months.

Qualities we look for:

• Happy and smiling with a positive attitude

• Have strong verbal, non-verbal communication skills

• Warm, caring and approachable

• Flexible and practical

• Enthusiastic, innovative and energetic

• Motivated 

• Be creative and imaginative

• Enjoy being with children

• Be open to constructive criticism and developing your skills

• High standards of personal hygiene

  
  

The Deputy Manager said "I'm aware that once the learner starts, they may not have all of these qualities, but hopefully they are willing to learn". "The main ones we are looking for are; Happy, Enthusiastic, Happy being with children and motivated". 

• How your job role builds

• The importance of your role

• Your tasks

• Meal times

• Activities

• Cleaning

• Paperwork

Be prepared to discuss this with your Trainer Assessor at your next meeting.

Ask them about their role and their journey to get there.

Be prepared to discuss this with your Assessor at your next meeting.

• Interact with Others – perhaps invite a work colleague to join you for lunch and find out what they do in the nursery.

• Help others – look for opportunities to offer your help to others in the nursery.

• Show appreciation. Saying please and thank you will be welcomed by everyone you work with.

• Take an interest in other people. Ask them questions.

• Get involved in activities in the nursery. Make yourself an active part of what happens in the nursery.

• Understand your body language and how other people in the nursery may see you.

• Be noticed for the right reasons – don’t be late to any planned meeting and pay attention when you are there.

Personal branding can be effective in helping your at work and in your career progression.

Question

What 3 words would people use to describe you in your workplace?

You have already seen in the previous nuggets what an employer would want to see from you?

The Apprenticeship Learner Induction contains lots of useful information about what to expect from your apprenticeship and how it all works.

This will open the form in surveymonkey.

Thank you.

"Full-Time" hours would usually be more than 35 hours, but shouldn't exceed 48 hours.

These are your working hours which you'll spend in the workplace doing work, and do not include travelling to and from the workplace.

If your start time at work was 09:00AM then it is expected that you arrive at work before 09:00AM and are ready to start working on time. if you are walking through the door at 09:00AM then would be considered as late.

Playing with the Children: You will be able to use your own initiative to build creative environments for the children to play in. Seeing children enjoying an activity that you have developed is one of the greatest rewards you can get.

You probably won't be playing with the children all day, and maybe not when you first start, but this is a key part of working in Early Years roles.

Making a Difference: Seeing how children develop in your care is one of the biggest rewards of working in Early Years. You can make a life-long impact on every child by helping provide them with opportunities to succeed.

No two days will be the same: Children can be unpredictable and exciting to work with. They are certainly not boring!

Are you up to the challenge?

Keeping Children Safe: Your job role is essential in keeping children safe, from your direct care of them, through to working with other professionals and organisations to protect them from harm.

Working with Others: The people that work in Early Years do it because they are committed and passionate about working with children. You can learn a lot from them, either by seeing how they work or by asking them questions.

If you required a day off / holiday from the work, but you hadn't given your employer enough notice, you would be upset with them for not authorising your day off wouldn't you?

How could this be avoided?

You should really be annoyed with yourself for not following the correct procedure and requesting your say off / holiday early enough.

Your employer might have other members of staff already off work on the days you wanted. In most employers, holidays are booked on a "first come, first served" method. If they let you have the day off they might not be able to meet the correct ratio of staff to children.

You have not completed your apprenticeship work which was requested by your Trainer Assessor by a certain deadline. You have therefore failed to meet a target set for you by your Trainer Assessor.

Failing to meet too many of your set targets can lead you to be exited from your apprenticeship.

How could this be avoided?

By planning enough time to complete your work well in advance of the deadline. If you looked at your set target in the days after it was set, you would have enough time to understand exactly what was needed to meet the target.

If there are genuine reasons why you are not able to complete your work, then you should speak to your Trainer Assessor well in advance of your deadline. You are always allowed to ask for more help if you need it.