Nearly a quarter of German daycare heads say jobs advertised below required skills
In a Bertelsmann Foundation survey of 4,782 daycare center heads, 23% said positions were advertised below the required qualification level, with compromises mostly on expertise.
Symbolic image · Photo: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Many heads of German daycare centers say the organizations that run them pay too little attention to quality when hiring staff, according to a survey commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation and carried out by a team at Justus Liebig University Giessen. A total of 4,782 center heads took part, about 7.8% of Germany's roughly 61,000 daycare centers. Participation was through an open call, so the results are not representative.
Twenty-three percent of respondents said positions had been advertised below the required qualification level. Compromises were made mainly on professional knowledge (56%) and reflective skills (40%), most often to relieve existing staff (81%) or to keep childcare running (76%). About one in ten said the operator had hired someone the center had considered unsuitable.
Ninety-three percent said the operator checked a criminal record certificate before hiring, even though such checks are mandatory. The foundation said operators receive little attention in the debate on quality despite bearing legal, financial and organizational responsibility. The study sees room for improvement in recruitment, onboarding and training.