Apprenticeships
Apprentices
Do you want to become an early childhood educator?
We are always looking for people with a genuine passion for young children to join our team as apprentices and aim to offer every apprentice a full time role when they qualify.
Why become an early childhood educator?
Working in a nursery provides many benefits, both personal and professional. Here are some of them:
- The opportunity to make a difference: working in a nursery provides an opportunity to have a positive impact on the lives of young children. Nursery practitioners help children develop important skills and behaviours and provide a nurturing and supportive environment that sets the stage for future success.
- Job satisfaction: Seeing children learn and grow is incredibly rewarding and provides a strong sense of fulfilment. Nursery educators have the opportunity to witness first hand the progress that children make and be part of their success.
- Professional development: Working at Ark Start offers many opportunities for professional growth and development. Nursery apprentices will have the opportunity to meet with very experienced staff regularly, attend fortnightly meetings focused on child development and regular coaching.
- Collaboration and support: Nursery staff work closely with colleagues, families, and other professionals to support children’s development.
- Flexibility: Ark Start work hard to offer flexible work hours and schedules, which can be ideal for individuals with other commitments or responsibilities.
- Career progression: Ark Start is a growing organisation and part of a much larger charity, so there are many opportunities for progression whether you want to be a nursery manager or perhaps train as a teacher.
What does being an early childhood educator involve?
As an early years nursery educator, you would be responsible for the care and education of children up to the age of five. Your duties would vary depending on the age group of the children you work with, but here are some general tasks you would perform:
- Planning and preparing activities: You will plan and prepare developmentally appropriate activities and experiences that promote children’s learning and development. These might include art and craft activities, sensory play, and outdoor exploration.
- Providing care: You will be responsible for the personal care needs of young children, such as feeding, changing, and toileting. You will also ensure that children are safe, healthy and happy.
- Supporting learning: You will create a nurturing and stimulating environment that encourages children’s curiosity and exploration. You will observe children’s play and interactions, and provide support and guidance to help them learn and develop.
- Working with families: You will work closely with families to support children’s development and wellbeing. You will communicate regularly with families, sharing information about children’s progress and needs, and working collaboratively to support their ongoing learning and development.
- Record keeping: You will maintain accurate records of children’s progress and activities, using this information to inform planning and support children’s ongoing development.
Key Responsibilities
- Working with colleagues to deliver excellent early education and childcare provision, ensuring that every child’s need are met and that they thrive in a safe environment.
- Building positive relationships with the children, families, colleagues, and internal/external professionals.
- Observing, monitoring, and engaging in children’s play activities linked to the EYFS. Activities will support children’s language and literacy, art and design, numeracy, and physical development.
- Keeping records on individual children, including daily observations and information about activities, meals served, and medications administered.
- Assisting with food preparation and serving food to children, ensuring special dietary requirements are met.
- Following nursery policies and procedures.
- Promoting the values and high standards of the nursery.
- Keep the setting clean and hygienic.
- Maintaining the outdoor area including gardening and other external work.
- Participate fully in staff training and team meetings.
This job description is not an exhaustive list and you will be expected to carry out any other reasonable tasks as directed by your line manager.
Ark offer some great benefits which include;
- We are committed to providing the best development for all our staff. We close the nurseries for five days each year to focus on staff training and ensure there is protected time for training and supervision each week for every adult. We work hard to ensure there are clear career progression routes so staff that start with us can continue their career with us.
- 25 days holiday per year, excluding bank holidays.
- 11% pension contributions.
- Above market salaries – we are a real living wage employer for qualified staff.
- Access to Ark Rewards providing discounts of thousands of retail outlets as well as for example free counselling, financial and legal advice and much more through our Employee Assistance Programme.
Successful applicants will need to provide ‘right to work in the UK’ documentation, undertake a DBS and provide at least two satisfactory references prior to commencing employment.
At Ark Start, you will be working towards your Early Educator Level 3 Apprenticeship over the course of 18 months
Please note this is an 18+ position.
Diversity and Inclusion at Ark
At Ark Start, we have a particular responsibility to advocate for diversity and inclusion to make a positive difference to the lives of our pupils. We believe that inclusivity and representation of people, circumstances, identities, cultures, and ethnicities from all sections of society make us stronger as individuals and as an organisation.
We are committed to attracting, developing and retaining a diverse workforce, with a broad range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. We welcome any candidate requests for reasonable adjustments to the selection process in order to ensure equal access to all candidates.
Ark is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people in our academies. To meet this responsibility, we follow a rigorous selection process. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate a commitment to safeguarding the welfare of children, which will be tested at interview. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.
