Apprenticeships

Your amazing career in childcare starts here!

Apply for an apprenticeship

So what does it mean to be an apprentice?

An Early Years Apprenticeship at Polstead Preschool offers you the chance to gain a nationally recognised qualification that will help you enjoy a rewarding, worthwhile and fun career in childcare.

Our Early Years Apprenticeships develop your knowledge and skills on and off the job, giving you the chance to earn and learn at the same time.

An apprenticeship gives people the opportunity to work and study at the same time. Your job is full time but you spend 20% of that time in ‘off-the-job training’. This means you will take part a series of activities directly relevant to your apprenticeship, which teaches you new knowledge, new skills and behaviours that will help you to become more competent in your role.

As an Early Years Apprentice you will work and study towards a Level 2 Early Years Practitioner or Level 3 Early Years Educator apprenticeship through work-based learning. Apprenticeships also include Level 1 and 2 Functional Skills in Maths and English.

Apprenticeship benefits

  • Nationally recognised qualification
  • NUS & Oyster discounts
  • Build your knowledge, skills and experience
  • Greater understanding of the childcare sector
  • Support from expert trainers
  • Online resources
  • Learn while you earn

What we look for

We are committed to supporting children’s learning and wellbeing, are you? Ask yourself these questions:

  • Do you have a warm smile that makes every child feel special?
  • If a child requests that you be a captain of a pirate ship, will you be the best pirate captain you can be?
  • Do you have the patience to read aloud a ten-page fairy tale, upside down, with at least 4 interruptions per page?
  • Will you be prepared to have lots of fun in the workplace?
  • Laughter is something you can expect to engage in for a large part of your working day.
  • Are you prepared to feel loved, special and important to many young children and their families?

We will need you to be eager to learn, have a professional attitude and prepared to juggle work and study.

How to apply

First of all register your interest here.

Once we have your email we will send you a form to complete to apply for the apprenticeship. Make sure you attach a copy of your current CV when sending the form back.

If we think you will be a good fit for the role we will contact you to brief you about the setting, talk through your CV and generally ensure that you know what to expect with your apprenticeship.

If this stage is successful we will ask you to attend an interview at our setting.

Once your interview is over you will receive feedback within 72 hours and if you are successful our team will discuss the next steps with you in terms of a start date! How exciting!

Search Vacancies

See the sidebar for a search facility to look for apprenticeship jobs in the Oxford area.