If you fulfill the respective requirements, you can, of course, obtain a relevant professional qualification through studies, educator:innen-Ausbildung or Kinderpflege-Ausbildung. With regard to childcare training in particular, providers often have the opportunity to receive funding from the Federal Employment Agency for the qualification of employees as childcare workers.

The lateral entry into childcare (QiK) model offers a further opportunity for lateral entry. This model is aimed at people who would like to gain further qualifications while working in order to work in a childcare facility. Through a combination of theoretical training and shortened attendance at a vocational college with a lot of practical work, you will acquire the qualification of a state-certified childcare worker.

This model offers an alternative to conventional childcare training, especially for people with experience. Find out more about the QiK model here!

In addition, the Personnel Ordinance also offers prospects for career changers. In principle, the provider of a childcare facility decides on the recruitment and deployment of staff as part of its overall responsibility and under its own authority. However, it is often important for the provider to be able to deploy the minimum number of staff as defined in the Personnel Ordinance. There are employment opportunities both for people with professional qualifications and for people with non-relevant professional qualifications.

The following applies to both forms of lateral entry: as specific knowledge for working with young children is not yet known, an (in-service) qualification of 160 hours is mandatory. Click here for more information on the 160h qualification.

Teams in childcare facilities in North Rhine-Westphalia can be multi-professional. The Personnel Ordinance therefore provides for many professional qualifications, such as in speech therapy, physiotherapy or cultural education, to be used within the framework of the minimum personnel value. Take a look now at the positive list for the Personnel Ordinance to see whether your qualification is eligible for employment.

If you generally have a pedagogical professional qualification, but this is not listed in the Personnel Ordinance, the state youth welfare offices can allow exceptions for employment in justified cases. This regulation also includes secondary school teachers, for example.

If you have completed other professional training and would still like to contribute your experience and skills to a childcare facility, you can be employed as a profile-relevant employee on supplementary hours. The prerequisite is that your skills complement the relevant profile of a childcare facility and that you contribute to the added value of early education. This can be a trained musician in a music daycare center, a gardener and landscaper in a daycare center with its own flower beds or a craftsman in a daycare center with a workshop for the children.

A prerequisite for the assignment is, among other things, that 80 hours of the 160-hour qualification, including the parts that take into account the requirements for child protection and risk prevention, have already been completed before starting work. A further requirement is that the provider must provide evidence of the employee's conceptual integration into the specific profile of the facility with the application and also set this out in the pedagogical concept.

If you are considering an assignment as a profile-relevant employee, please contact a provider of daycare facilities and discuss the possibilities of profile-enhancing activities with them.