Kids Planet Training Academy – reflecting on 2021

With National Apprentice Week approaching, we are taking a closer look at what the Training Academy has been getting up to over the previous year. During that time, the Kids Planet group has grown incredibly over the past year, from 50 nurseries at the end of 2020, to 96 nurseries as we ended 2021.

The growing number of settings has created huge scope for employment and progression within the group, and with so many nurseries with keen and talented practitioners, the Kids Planet Training Academy has continued to thrive over 2021.

It is an exciting time for us as we enter the new year with almost 400 apprentices across the group across Level 2 and 3, and now Level 5, after expanding our offering further in 2021 to now provide Level 5 courses for Lead Practitioners.

Our apprenticeships and traineeships are not just for Kids Planet employees; we are proud to be able to help many external nurseries.

In January 2021 we successfully secured Kickstart funding from the DWP. The Kickstart scheme is designed to help young people (aged 16-24) who are currently on universal credit to develop the skills and experience they need to find work, through valuable six-month paid job placements across all our nurseries with mentoring support from the Academy team.

In February, we were thrilled to announce Kids Planet have won the WorldSkillsUK Diversity and Inclusion Heroes Award for Programme or Campaign of the Year for our commitment to building an inclusive workforce in conjunction with our Men in Childcare campaign.

Following the success of the ongoing men in childcare campaign, in 2021, Kids Planet Training Academy launched a sports coach traineeship in partnership with Vocational Skills Solutions (VSS) to support sports coaches into early years settings.

And as part of our commitment to providing children with healthy, nutritious meals, we have also launched a dedicated Chef Academy, working closely with Head Chef Victor Gonzalez to put together a programme of learning for Apprenticeship Chefs.

Be sure to follow us on our social channels this National Apprenticeship Week (7^th – 13^th February) to help celebrate apprenticeships and find out more about what they involve and how to apply, and use hashtags #BuildTheFuture #NAW2022.

If you would like more information about any of our courses, please email training@kidsplanetdaynurseries.co.uk.