Bright Stars Nursery Group has appointed Realise as exclusive training provider for its 92 settings in England.

Until now the group has used several trainers but it will now use Realise as its exclusive apprenticeship provider in England.

Stephen Booty, chairman of Bright Stars, said: “We are very diligent in our research and the nurseries we seek to acquire must clearly meet the high standards that we look for, both in terms of quality and excellence.

“Once a nursery comes on board, we want it to retain the personality and leadership which has made it a success previously so the teams in the nursery have the autonomy to make decisions which best suit them. One area we are looking for uniformity is with our training. It’s so important that our people have career progression opportunities and apprenticeships provide a fantastic vehicle to achieve that.”

He added: “We are extremely proud of the bespoke curriculum we have developed for the teams in our nurseries to develop the children in our care, and embedding that curriculum in new members of our teams forms a fundamental part of the training Realise delivers to our learners.”

Karen Derbyshire, operations director for early years at Realise, said: “We’re delighted to be expanding our work with the Bright Stars Group to deliver industry-leading apprenticeships, both attracting new people to the sector and helping their existing people to take the next step in their careers.

“We will listen to the specific needs of each nursery and their apprentices and develop training that is aligned with their goals. Ultimately, our main aim is to produce fantastic early years educators which will benefit the children in their care tremendously.”