Leah’s Pathway to an Apprenticeship in Childcare

We met with one of our Childcare Learners, Leah Joynson in Winsford, who always knew from school that she wanted to pursue a career working with Children.

It was in her last year of school that things really started to come together for Leah; she managed to get some work experience at a local nursery where she was able to pick up basic skills such as communication and behaviour in the workplace, plus the experience of what it’s like to actually work.

2 nights a week were spent in the nursery, increasing to every day in her holidays; all unpaid.

Leah left school and started at Total People in the September on our Level 2 Pathways to Apprenticeships course, which is a classroom based qualification focusing on the basic knowledge and skills needed to care for young children; by January, she’d found herself an Apprenticeship!

On a daily basis, Leah gets to help set up activities to help children learn and develop from an early age, plus gets to help out with an after school club, where she gets experience working with Children a little older.

“Because I’d been on the Pathways programme it means my Apprenticeship duration is shorter and I’ll be able to start my level 3 sooner.”

On a monthly basis, Leah’s designated training adviser from Total People visits her in the workplace to check how she is doing and set targets and work enabling her to grow her knowledge and personality.

Leah says: “It’s not just my knowledge about childcare that’s grown, I’ve also grown in confidence”

“I’ve got more confidence in myself, before I struggled speaking with staff but now I’m a lot more comfortable.”

You’ve got to put yourself out there

“Applying for an Apprenticeship is hard, I sent CV’s and Applications off regularly to get my name out there and make people know I was willing”

“The thought of all the work might put you off, but you learn to manage your time better and the experience you get out of it at the end is worth it.”

Leah has big aspirations; in the future she plans to go onto a higher qualification at university and move onto a managerial role within a nursery.