Full steam ahead!

Best Practice Network’s early years programmes have continued to grow apace in the past 12 months – and there’s no sign of a slowdown any time soon.

The apprenticeships team welcomed 32 new members of staff to help support the delivery of Apprenticeship Levy funded BPN programmes, many of which are for the early years sector.

BPN’s level 5 Early Years Lead Practitioner programme kicked off at the beginning of 2022 when it welcomed the first of four cohorts. A total of 20 level 2 and level 3 early years cohorts have also been delivered. In total more than 1422 early years apprentices have completed or are taking part in these programmes.

BPN leaders have been adept at adapting these programmes to fit around the workload demands of participants. With the early years sector continuing to struggle with recruitment, apprentices can sometimes find it a struggle to access sessions and set aside time to study.

This is being addressed through the introduction of Teams Classrooms across the Level 3 and 5 programmes. This platform makes all taught sessions available on demand so if an apprentice is called away they can access the training at any time.

Ensuring that apprentices have the functional skills needed to complete their programmes successfully has led to a number of innovations. These include more ways to access group classroom sessions in level 1 and 2 maths and English and bringing on board three additional functional skills tutors.

1422 + apprentices have completed or taken part in these programmes.