Childcare
must become a real career option for both sexes if the standards and rates of
pay are to increase, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has claimed.
Julie
Mellor, chair of the EOC, said children, parents and providers would all
benefit if more men chose childcare as a career.
"If
more men choose childcare as a career, the benefits will be immense: for
children, who will have more male role models; for the profession, which is
desperately short of staff; and for the economy, as more childcare will mean
parents can work and contribute," she said.
The
EOC also claimed that research shows pay rates and status within a profession
often rises as more men enter it.
Mellor
called on the Department for Education and Skills to work closely with the EOC
to look at ways of getting more men into the profession.
