Connor Laurie, Early Learning and Childcare Apprentice, Glasgow

Connor Laurie, from Glasgow is working towards his apprenticeship at the Butterfly Nursery.

When Connor left school, he was going on to pursue a career in sports coaching for kids, but when he was asked to help out at a nursery during the summer holidays he jumped at the opportunity. After lending a hand at the nursery, Connor was offered a full-time job and went on to college to study for his level 5 and 6 NC. Connor is now undertaking an apprenticeship at the Butterfly Nursery and gets to incorporate all sorts of activities into the day-to-day routine.

Connor finds working in the nursery and seeing the kids every day incredibly rewarding. Having his own key group of nine children, aged 3-5 years old, gives him a great sense of responsibility and achievement.

Only four months into his apprenticeship, Connor is at the very beginning of his career in Early Years, but here’s what he had to say on his experience so far:

“The best thing about my job is the smiles on the kids’ faces when you do something fun together – them being happy is the most rewarding thing.

“Every day is different and there are so many variables that you need to be flexible and creative to be able to adapt to every situation. For example, if you’ve come up with a game or an activity to do with the kids and they’re not enjoying it, you have to think quickly on your feet to change it up so you have their attention and keep them engaged. Ultimately, it’s all about the kids.

“Once I’ve finished my apprenticeship, I’m hoping to go on to work through my SVQ qualifications and get as much experience as possible. I want to try lots of different things through my career in Early Learning and Childcare, and maybe run my own nursery one day. All I know is I want to work with kids and don’t want to move away from that.

“For anyone thinking about a career in Early Learning and Childcare, I’d say you should go for it. You need to have the patience to do it, because it’s not always an easy job, but if you think it’s for you, just do it.”