A qualified play workforce
Posted to Employer Engagement at 4:00 pm on December 2nd, 2009 by Elaine ClowesWith a new licence as the Sector Skills Council (SSC) representing playwork and other sections of the active learning, leisure and well being sector we are embarking on a new strategy for Playwork Education, Training and Qualifications while reaffirming our commitment to a qualified workforce.
In an era in which government itself has set targets to reach the top eight in the international ranking for world skills and to professionalise all sections of the children’s workforce in England our sector has its work cut out. Only a third of the workforce is qualified to level 3 in playwork, and we have very few HE institutions providing graduate opportunities for playworkers.
In England there have been many policy advances for children and young people under the auspices of the Every Child Matters banner including the Children Act and the Children’s Plan. All of these developments have had a strategic implication for playworkers but it was really in the 2020 Workforce Strategy that we saw a real commitment to the playwork workforce. Funding to qualify 4000 playworkers to level 3, a leadership and management programme at graduate level, and research into the position and potential for a graduate workforce.
Our Sector Qualifications Strategy is providing the framework for playwork qualifications that will be accessible and challenging for the new recruit, the experienced worker and the fully competent practitioner alike. At levels 2, 3 and 4 they will begin populating the Credit and Qualifications Framework from January 2010. Underpinning these qualifications in the future will be a new suite of National Occupational Standards – the building blocks for all sector training and qualifications – that include new units for adventure play, integrated working, working as a Play Ranger and playwork with under 5s.
How do we know these standards and qualifications will be ‘fit for purpose’? Well, because we develop them with the sector and we quality assure them with a peer led process of endorsement and approval involving employers and other stakeholders at every stage.
As we move towards 2010 and a new election we think the sector is in a very strong position. play and playwork is now integral to children’s services and children’s workforce policy and those gains must continue with the next government, who ever that may be. The lives of children and well being of our society depends on it.
At SkillsActive we will continue to play our part as the SSC for playwork, working with the sector, government and our partners towards the development of a workforce qualified with the skills, knowledge and understanding to deliverer a truly professional service for children, young people and their families.
I, for one, will not be rushing to get a degree in Playwork. as the Manager and owner of an after-school setting, I already work at below Minimum wage. It has all to do with market forces, and what people will pay, so graduate level WON’T drive up wages. My staff work 4 hours a day in term time. Putting in more hours to earn a degree won’t get them anywhere – or if it did it wouldn’t be with me – they would have to move on and I would then have to look for less qualified staff.
I understand your sentiments, Jen, and there are many part-time, low paid staff working in our sector, as well as a lot of volunteers who are unqualified and sessional. However, there are quite a lot of playworkers in full time jobs, and foundation and honours degrees in playwork already established which recruit playworkers as students, because they have an interest in learning more about play and playwork rather than having an expectation of higher wages. The government’s current drive to qualify the children’s workforce is focusing on a ‘core’ of graduates and a minimum qualification for all at level 3 where appropriate, i.e. there is no intention (at the moment) of requiring everyone in playwork to have a degree. However, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has recently funded SkillsActive and the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) to undertake some research with the playwork sector, to find out their views on having a core of graduates, and the report from this research is due to be completed and released by CWDC within the next few weeks. Once we have a clear picture of the sector’s views, we will be in a better position to advise government on the support that is needed and develop an informed strategy that meets employers’ needs.