Actually, everyone has the same goal, that was clear in the state parliament on Thursday: the best care for Bavaria’s small children. However, this does not make the problem any smaller, because, as is the case throughout Germany, there is a shortage of thousands of skilled workers in Bavarian daycare centers. In everyday life, a gap opens up between the educational goals and reality. Mothers and fathers are often happy when they can leave their children somewhere where they are well and the care times are stable. Too many facilities have to shorten childcare times, close groups or the daycare center due to a lack of staff.
A corresponding expert hearing in the Social Committee should now clarify what the Free State is doing to recruit staff and ensure quality. It quickly became clear that there was a growing fear of a two-tier system, injustice and a deterioration in quality.
At the turn of the year 2023/24, 632,000 girls and boys attended a daycare center. They were looked after by 61,300 educators and 57,134 supplementary staff. 18,800 of them are currently missing in Bavaria, including 14,400 in daycare centers and 4,400 in after-school care. However, Natalie Niedermeier, head of the department for early childhood education and upbringing in the Ministry of Social Affairs, assumed that a “silver lining could be reached” in 2026 if around 5,000 new childcare workers and educators continue to be added each year. On the other hand, the municipal associations fear that they will not be able to fulfill their legal right to all-day care for primary school students due to a lack of staff.
The state government is trying to recruit staff for the daycare centers, the representatives of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Culture explained this in detail: They are advertising, there are campaigns and close cooperation with the employment agency. Places at vocational schools for child care are being expanded. Close to home, said Christine Hefer from the Ministry of Culture, that was the “magic word”. This is intended to prevent longer journeys from deterring applicants. The training numbers are stable. There are currently 9,500 women and men learning child care. In addition, training to become a nanny, which is considered a supplementary worker, is possible part-time.
One catch with childcare and educator training is that it is anchored in the school system and not in the dual system, which is why the training is usually not paid for. The state wants to counteract this with model tests: Prospective educators can now choose between the structured training with two years of school and a third, practical year, or three years with practice and theory alternating. There is remuneration for this, and those eligible can receive BaföG during the school phase only. And potential dropouts from the specialist academies for social pedagogy are advised to take the childcare examination after two years of study so that they have a degree.
These approaches were hardly criticized in the state parliament; the new initiative by the Ministry of Social Affairs to qualify career changers is a cause for concern. However, Niedermeier didn’t want to hear about a “narrow-gauge qualification”, the great fear of the educators’ associations. Newcomers can continue their training over three blocks and a total of five modules from assistant to supplementary worker to specialist, i.e. from helper to childcare worker to educator – the vast majority are women over 40 with their own children who already have a professional qualification and are reorienting themselves want. According to Niedermeier, this training lasts up to five years and can cost up to 9,000 euros, which employers or career changers pay. This path is a vocational training course, there are online and face-to-face modules and is based on the latest findings in learning research. The State Institute for Early Childhood Education is involved, as are the professional associations. More than 6,700 interested people are taking advantage of the offer, and around 2,300 are already assistants or childcare workers.
The difference to traditional training, in addition to the age of the career changers, is that they can be employed in daycare right from the start, receive a salary and are included in the childcare ratio. That makes this training attractive for the Free State, sponsors and trainees, but that was precisely the problem faced by the invited representatives of educators and specialist academies. They fear a loss of quality in the daycare centers. “Do we want care for everyone or education for many?” said Rene Rosenzweig from the skilled workers’ association. The further training does not reach the level of state educator training, but in the end, educators are also on the certificate. This bothered the experts in unison.
“But if we want to preserve daycare places, we need these further training models,” said Robert Fabian Krause, CFO of the Munich-based ICP Foundation, which runs integrative daycare centers. The career changers could be “requalified” in everyday life, but for this daycare providers would need more money from the Free State, for example to finance language courses for foreign staff or further training. At the moment, however, the “operating cost gap” is getting bigger and bigger.