This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Men urged to opt for childcare careers
01/11/2002
A career in childcare can be the right choice for men
and women, Education Minister Cathy Jamieson said today as
she announced extra funding to support workforce
training.
Ms Jamieson was speaking at Men in Childcare's 'When Men
Become Carers' Conference, where she stressed that children
would benefit if care settings were more representative of
society.
She said:
"Children should have a variety of role models when they
are growing up. If childcare and early education remain
completely female dominated, children lose out on the
contribution men can make and men lose out on a fulfilling
career.
"Men in Childcare recognise the importance of diversity
as well as skills in the workforce - they have 40 men from
a range of backgrounds studying for childcare
qualifications in Edinburgh. I would like to see more men
working in childcare to help counteract the view that this
is somehow 'women's work'."
Ms Jamieson continued:
"I want to see the best possible quality of care for
children throughout Scotland. To allow for further
expansion and development of the early years workforce, I
am making available an additional £2.4 million to local
authorities from 2004 onwards. This means the money
available for workforce training will rise to £6 million
per year.
"I can also announce that we have exceeded our target to
train 5,000 new childcare workers by 2002 - more than 6,000
qualifications have been awarded since 1999. Our goal is to
have all those working in the sector holding a
qualification, or working towards one."
Local authorities will have flexibility in deciding how
best to use the additional funding made available from the
Scottish Budget 2003-2006 (£2.4 million extra in both
2004/05 and 2005/06). However, the Executive plans to write
to authorities giving examples of areas that the funding
could be used for. One area which will be highlighted is
improving the diversity of the workforce.
The Executive's target in the 1999 Programme for
Government was to train 5,000 new childcare workers by
2002.