The Co-op Group, along with other members of the Royal Foundation’s Business Taskforce for Early Childhood, is spearheading an intervention to invest in over 600 early years apprentices.
These will span employers across the private, public, voluntary and community sectors who support the wellbeing of children aged five and under. The initiative will also help deliver the workforce required to staff the creation of 3,000 nurseries across England, says the Group.
The scheme will be achieved through the Co-op Levy Share service which, says the Group, allows like-minded partners to pledge up to 50% of annual unspent apprenticeship levy funds and share them in a targeted way to support the provision of apprenticeships in underrepresented groups.
The Group is creating a specific fund in support of early childhood, with a starting pledge of £1m from members of the Business Taskforce and a commitment to raising £5m over the next five years, with additional pledges from independent retail society Midcounties Co-op. This will help to fund over 600 apprenticeships, which will the Group says will be allocated to support individuals to get the training they need, whether they are starting or further developing careers working with children and families during early childhood, in a range of sectors across the UK.
Specific areas of need in the UK include a significant shortage of health visitors and midwives. One solution has been midwifery apprenticeships, which have shown to be a real success, making midwifery an attractive career and enabling those from a broader range of backgrounds to qualify. The existing childcare system is also widely regarded as expensive and requiring more funding, and many parents are forced to drop out of the workforce to look after their children.
The new government has pledged to create more than 100,000 new nursery places for children from nine months old, with plans to repurpose unused space in primary schools to create much-needed places in 3,000 nurseries, helping to both drive up standards and meet demand.
Related: How co-ops are delivering social mobility through training and apprenticeships
One feature of the current Apprenticeship Levy system is the ability for businesses to share their unspent levy with other employers. Since 2021, the Group has successfully campaigned for the maximum % that could be shared by an employer to increase from 25% to 50%. The government recently committed to reforming the levy to a ‘growth and skills levy’.
“Whether we are parents or not, we will all have young children in our lives, and we will understand the importance of supporting them and also their parents through the early years,” said Group CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq.
“As the Case for Change report shows, supporting early years greatly benefits business. Our co-op is a 5.5 million strong member-owned organisation with more than 56,000 colleagues. A quarter of our Co-op colleagues have caring responsibilities, which is one of the many reasons why we are absolutely committed to playing our part in the work of the Royal Foundation Business Taskforce for Early Childhood.
“With the government’s pledge to create much needed physical capacity in the early years sector, it is great that through our levy initiative we can help attract more people into the sector, giving them the opportunity to consider an early year’s career and the correct training.
“We’re currently in talks with other taskforce members to see how they can contribute to provide further funding, but we are also looking to other businesses not already involved in the taskforce to get involved and support the Levy.”
From Midcounties, Sara Dunham, chief officer for Your Co-op Little Pioneers Childcare, said: “The early years sector is crying out for apprenticeships to help showcase what a rewarding career it can be, training the next generation of talented early years teachers in order to provide the best possible start in life for children throughout the UK.
“In our experience, apprenticeships are incredibly valuable, giving us the opportunity to upskill individuals who are passionate about the sector which will ultimately allow us to support more families within the communities we serve.
“As a co-operative, we strongly believe in doing good together to make a collective difference, and this pledge to invest in 600 Early Years’ apprenticeships aims to do just that, helping strengthen the sector as a whole whilst creating opportunities for talented individuals to forge a rewarding career in childcare.”
Alongside the Group, the taskforce members are Aviva, Deloitte, Iceland Foods, Ikea UK and Ireland, The Lego Group, NatWest Group and Unilever UK.
