Early Years Practitioner Apprenticeship Level 2 in Aldershot, Guildford

Summary

Are you looking to start your career within childcare? Come and join our fun and dynamic team! Develop your early years career with this fantastic opportunity in a growing, ambitious company, providing care, education and compliance for children to the highest standard. Competitive salary and uniform and lunch provided, plus other excellent benefits.

Wage

£15,704 for your first year, then could increase depending on your age

National Minimum Wage rate for apprentices

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Training course

Early years practitioner (level 2)

Hours

Monday - Friday, 40 hours per week.

40 hours a week

Start date

Thursday 1 May 2025

Duration

1 year 3 months

Positions available

2

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you’ll do at work

Cherryvale Nursery are delighted to have an opportunity for an Apprentice to join their team. As an Early Years Apprentice you will be trained on the job to give you a true representation of what it is like to work in a day nursery. You will be allocated a buddy who you will work alongside, and you will work towards undertaking the role of a key person. Within the role of Apprentice, you will attend training days with our training provider and the other days will be based at your allocated nursery.

What You’ll Do:

As an Early Years Apprentice, you'll get real-world experience working in a day nursery. You’ll be paired with a buddy to guide you, and work towards becoming a key person in the nursery. Your apprenticeship will include training days and practical days at the nursery.

Your typical day will include:

Assisting team members to provide top-notch care and education for children.
Building authentic and meaningful relationships with children and their parents/carers.
Liaise closely with parents/carers and encourage their involvement in nursery life and their child's learning.
Working with nursery staff to ensure children’s needs and requirements are met.
Keeping the environment safe, clean, and healthy.
Supporting inclusive practices, and helping plan and assess activities that cater to the unique development needs of each child.

Rewards and Benefits:

We value our apprentices and offer a range of fantastic perks:

Competitive Salary: £8.60-11.44 per hour, depending on age and experience.
Annual Leave: 24 days, plus your birthday off and public holidays.
Bonuses: £100 on completing your level 2 qualification, £250 on completing Level 3, plus yearly salary increases (£500 for Level 2, £750 for Level 3).
Annual Pay Review: Ensures competitive compensation.
Team Fun Days and Awards: Celebrate our amazing team!
Referral Bonuses: Up to £500 for referring friends and family.
Bike to Work Scheme: Get help buying a bike with a £50 contribution and salary sacrifice repayment option.
Staff Perks: Discounts on cinema, retail, travel, and more.
Free lunch every day and uniform.
Compassionate Leave: Up to 5 days paid leave.
Childcare Discount: Generous discounts for staff.
Employee Assistance Helpline: 24/7 confidential counselling and advice.

Where you’ll work

Frimley Road
Ash Vale
Aldershot
UK
GU12 5NZ

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

College or training organisation

REALISE LEARNING AND EMPLOYMENT LIMITED

Your training course

Early years practitioner (level 2)

Equal to GCSE

Course contents

Support babies and young children through a range of transitions.e.g moving onto school, moving house or the birth of a sibling
Recognise when a child is in danger, at risk of serious harm or abuse and explain the procedures to be followed to protect them. Types of abuse including: domestic, neglect , physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Identify risks and hazards in the work setting and during off site visits.relating to both children and staff
Demonstrate skills and understanding for the prevention and control of infection, including hand washing, food preparation and hygiene, dealing with spillages safely, safe disposal of waste, using correct personal protective equipment.
Use equipment, furniture and materials safely, following the manufacturers’ instructions and setting’s requirements.
Encourage children to be aware of personal safety and the safety of others and develop personal hygiene practices (including oral hygiene).
Promote health and wellbeing in settings by encouraging babies and young children to consume healthy and balanced meals, snacks and drinks appropriate for their age and be physically active through planned and spontaneous activity throughout the day, both indoors and outdoors.
Carry out respectful care routines appropriate to the development, stage, dignity and needs of the child, including eating (feeding and weaning/complimentary feeding), nappy changing procedures, potty/toilet training, care of skin, teeth and hair and rest and sleep provision.
Communicate with all children in ways that will be understood, including verbal and non-verbal communication.
Extend children’s development and learning through verbal and non-verbal communication.
Encourage babies and young children to use a range of communication methods.
Use a range of communication methods to exchange information with children and adults.
Work with colleagues to identify and plan enabling environments, activities (both indoors and outdoors), play opportunities and educational programmes (both adult led and child initiated) to support children’s holistic development through a range of play, creativity, social development and learning.
Implement and review activities to support children’s play, creativity, social development and learning and clear up after activities.
Observe children, assess, plan and record the outcomes, sharing results accurately and confidentially in line with expected statutory framework and setting’s requirements.
Use learning activities to support early language development.
Support children’s early interest and development in mark making, writing, reading and being read to.
Support children’s interest and development in mathematical learning including numbers, number patterns, counting, sorting and matching.
Support the assessment, planning, implementation and reviewing (the graduated approach) of each baby’s and young child's individual plan for their care and participation.
Work in ways that value and respect the developmental needs and stages of babies and children.
Use feedback, mentoring and/or supervision to identify and support areas for development, goals and career opportunities.
Work co-operatively with colleagues, other professionals and agencies to meet the needs of babies and young children and enable them to progress.
Work alongside parents and/or carers and recognise their role in the baby’s/child’s health, well-being, learning and development.
Encourage parents and/or carers to take an active role in the baby’s/child’s care, play, learning and development.
Demonstrate how to share information with parents/carers about the importance of healthy balanced diets, looking after teeth and being physically active.
Support babies and young children through a range of transitions.e.g moving onto school, moving house or the birth of a sibling
Recognise when a child is in danger, at risk of serious harm or abuse and explain the procedures to be followed to protect them. Types of abuse including: domestic, neglect , physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Identify risks and hazards in the work setting and during off site visits.relating to both children and staff
Demonstrate skills and understanding for the prevention and control of infection, including hand washing, food preparation and hygiene, dealing with spillages safely, safe disposal of waste, using correct personal protective equipment.
Use equipment, furniture and materials safely, following the manufacturers’ instructions and setting’s requirements.
Encourage children to be aware of personal safety and the safety of others and develop personal hygiene practices (including oral hygiene).
Promote health and wellbeing in settings by encouraging babies and young children to consume healthy and balanced meals, snacks and drinks appropriate for their age and be physically active through planned and spontaneous activity throughout the day, both indoors and outdoors.
Carry out respectful care routines appropriate to the development, stage, dignity and needs of the child, including eating (feeding and weaning/complimentary feeding), nappy changing procedures, potty/toilet training, care of skin, teeth and hair and rest and sleep provision.
Communicate with all children in ways that will be understood, including verbal and non-verbal communication.
Extend children’s development and learning through verbal and non-verbal communication.
Encourage babies and young children to use a range of communication methods.
Use a range of communication methods to exchange information with children and adults.
Work with colleagues to identify and plan enabling environments, activities (both indoors and outdoors), play opportunities and educational programmes (both adult led and child initiated) to support children’s holistic development through a range of play, creativity, social development and learning.
Implement and review activities to support children’s play, creativity, social development and learning and clear up after activities.
Observe children, assess, plan and record the outcomes, sharing results accurately and confidentially in line with expected statutory framework and setting’s requirements.
Use learning activities to support early language development.
Support children’s early interest and development in mark making, writing, reading and being read to.
Support children’s interest and development in mathematical learning including numbers, number patterns, counting, sorting and matching.
Support the assessment, planning, implementation and reviewing (the graduated approach) of each baby’s and young child's individual plan for their care and participation.
Work in ways that value and respect the developmental needs and stages of babies and children.
Use feedback, mentoring and/or supervision to identify and support areas for development, goals and career opportunities.
Work co-operatively with colleagues, other professionals and agencies to meet the needs of babies and young children and enable them to progress.
Work alongside parents and/or carers and recognise their role in the baby’s/child’s health, well-being, learning and development.
Encourage parents and/or carers to take an active role in the baby’s/child’s care, play, learning and development.
Demonstrate how to share information with parents/carers about the importance of healthy balanced diets, looking after teeth and being physically active.

Your training plan

Your full role and responsibilities will be set out by your employer. Cherryvale Nursery will provide you with all of the on-the-job training you need to up-skill in your role, and your 20% off-the-job learning will be incorporated as part of your working day.

You will be working towards the Level 2 Early Years Practitioner apprenticeship standard, which includes;

Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours
Level 2 Early Years Practitioner qualification
Functional skills in Maths and English if required

This will be delivered through Cherryvale Nursery's dedicated training provider, Realise. Realise is an established training provider that’s enjoying an exciting period of growth following a management buyout and rebrand in late 2020.

Requirements

Desirable qualifications

Other in:

Basic Maths (grade n/a)
Standard English (grade n/a)

Let the company know about other relevant qualifications and industry experience you have. They can adjust the apprenticeship to reflect what you already know.

Skills

Team working
Creative
Non judgemental
Patience

Other requirements

Please note: We undertake safeguarding checks on all our workers in accordance with the DfE statutory guidance 'Keeping Children Safe in Education'. As part of these checks, we require a current Enhanced DBS Disclosure for everyone working our nurseries. If you do not have a valid subscription to the DBS Update Service, we will require you to complete a new DBS application as part of the registration process.

About this company

Cherry Childcare, part of the Family First Nursery Group, offers the highest quality childcare for children aged 7 months to 5 years. We want to ensure that our family first spirit and curriculum positively impacts as many families as possible. Always putting our families first, the safety and wellbeing of all our children, staff and parents is our number one priority.

After this apprenticeship

You will be able to grow with Family First, with future opportunities to develop your career with us. If you hold a Level 2 already we would still love to hear from you as we could deliver a Level 3 Early Year Educator Apprenticeship within this role.

Ask a question

The contact for this apprenticeship is:

REALISE LEARNING AND EMPLOYMENT LIMITED

The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000312849.

Apply now

Closes in 24 days (Tuesday 29 April 2025)

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After signing in, you’ll apply for this apprenticeship on the company's website.

Company’s application instructions

To apply, you must register with GetMyFirstJob and then follow the instructions to complete your application.

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