Why you should complete regular in-house training

With budgets in early years setting putting more and more strain on finances, it can be very difficult to offer the training to practitioners that you would like to because there simply is not the funds to do so. Training and upskilling are incredibly important in ensuring outstanding practice and often early years settings are penalised by Ofsted through not placing enough emphasis on continuous professional training in the early years. Although budgets may be tight there are many ways that you can ensure regular up to date training is still given to the practitioners in your setting. An incredibly easy way to do this is to make the most of the in-house training opportunities. Although these do not give the full scope of training and information that would be available if you were to attend local training courses it is still a way to show you are conscious of the importance of meeting training needs.

How to get the most out of in-house training

In-house training refers to any training that takes place for the employees in the work place.Some useful ways to establish some in-house training are –

Cascading – If the budget allows send one or two practitioners on a training course and then ensure they cascade the training down to other practitioners through an in-house training session. This way all practitioners receive the information from the training, ensuring the same high levels of practice across the setting.

Using others knowledge – If you have a practitioner who is currently studying at a higher level, encourage them to share knowledge and training they have gained from studying high qualifications. Hold regular in-house training workshops.

Free courses – There are many courses online which are free, encourage practitioners to sign up to these and complete as many as they like. Although this is not strictly in-house training, you could try and give all practitioners a little time out of ratio to complete these.

Buy training materials – Lots of really useful powerpoints, books etc can be purchased for a small one off cost that can then be used as often as necessary during practitioner workshops etc. This can be incredibly informative and generate some great conversations and improvement ideas for the setting.