In September 1983 he began his early years career as the only male on the course. John Warren, director at Toddletown explains the importance of encouraging more men into the sector

I went to collect an application form from the local college and was told by the receptionist that we don’t accept men onto the nursery nursing course. Luckily one of the tutors was in the office and said it’s not that we don’t accept men, we have never had any male apply. I almost gave up on my journey then. I felt that I needed to justify why I should be on the course and why I wanted to pursue a career in early years.

Changing perceptions

Forty years on and I feel the same. I speak to male workers within the industry who are asked what’s the benefit of having men in the early years sector?

Once men have justified their existence in the sector they then have to prove they are safe to be around children. It’s not uncommon for new parents on a tour of the nursery to question to the manager “does he work in the nursery?”, “yes, he does” comes the reply from the manager, “Oh that’s nice, but I would rather he didn’t change my child’s nappy”. I’m paraphrasing of course, but this type of conversation is not uncommon and the manger must try and prove that their member of staff is safe to be there.

We go round and round in circles trying to equate what men bring to early years and still the percentage of men working in the sector sits at between 2% to 3% of the workforce.

Do how do we attract men to the workforce? We need some out of the box thinking and need to look at other sectors or attractions to see what encourages them to work or follow them.

I would say that the first rule is not to promise the world – no one likes an employer who makes promises they cannot keep. We also need to make the image of men in early years more visible to the public and our future workforce. The early years sector is currently enduring a recruitment and retention crisis and men are a group that could be encouraged into the sector with the right narrative and incentives.
We should take note of how other sectors recruit.

For example, the armed forces. The army would be the worst idea of a job for me, but they are excellent recruiters. Think about the progress of technology. The current cohort of early years children will in their future be working on technology that has not even been invented yet – how exciting or scary is that? However, it means that we need to encourage a diverse pool of people into the sector.

What if we said we need gamers to help our children to be more creative, to give them the most excellent problem-solving skills so when the new technology is invented our children will be ready? In essence, we need to think out of the box when it comes to recruiting men into early years.

We don’t just want a token male member of staff in the nursery and we don’t want a male member staff just to fill the staffing gaps that I am sure we all have.

I know personally that sometimes it feels like you are on a nappy-changing conveyor belt, but then you witness a child take its first steps and your world is changed forever.

Men have a lot to bring to the sector and it’s important that children see and experience their participation in their earliest years.