Are you wondering what exactly is the benefit FOR YOU of taking nanny professional development courses? There are so many courses out there, and it can be difficult to tell if you will actually gain any new knowledge, or new ideas that spark your personal growth – though regardless, it can look good on your resume and it demonstrates to your nanny family (and potential future nanny families) that you value continuing growth as a professional caregiver. Investing your time and resources in continuing professional education is a wise decision, and in addition to wonderful events that offer taster-level workshops on a variety of topics (like interNational Nanny Training Day, which just happened last weekend), it’s great idea to enrich yourself with a more in-depth “full course meal” experience every couple of years, to spark your thinking in new directions and build on the professional reflective practice that we do with each other at nanny social events and on social media.
But when you’re investing your time and resources in a longer course, it becomes even more important to find an experience that will feel interesting and relevant to you personally. So how do you find one that will feel exciting and rewarding for you personally? There are many course options out there, and there is a magnificent diversity across all measures within the nanny, NCS & manny community, so it can be challenging to identify courses that you personally are likely to ENJOY the most. The best way is to ask other nannies which courses they have done, and specifically what they recommend about them.
Some longer courses are fundamentally content-driven, such as the multi-day Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST) certification course. The point of this type of course is to transmit a large amount of valuable information about safety so the student can then confidently and reliably implement safer car seat practices with the infants and children in their care. Other courses might have a lot of content, but are nonetheless oriented to shifting your thinking and perspectives on fundamental questions of what it means to be a caregiver for young children, for example the full-day introductory level “Respectful Care for Newborns, Infants & Toddlers” course.
There are frequent threads in the nanny Facebook groups where nannies crowd-share their experiences and recommendations on nanny & NCS professional development courses they have actually taken, and you can search each group’s archives for ideas (do reach out to commenters to ask further questions about courses that pique your interest!). If you don’t find what you’re looking for in the group archives, you can create a new post asking about a particular topic, or for experiences from people who have done a particular course that intrigues you.
When it comes to professional education in a profession as personal as in-home child care, experiencing transformation on a personal level can be an enjoyable counterpart and result from our exposure to new professional ideas and ways of thinking. Children don’t respond to “professionals,” they respond to and connect with people … so our unique personal attributes are an inseparable part of our professional practice as in-home caregivers. Finding nanny & NCS professional development courses that speak to you as a person is an example of a happy balancing of the personal and professional aspects of your life as a nanny, manny or NCS.
For anyone who took the intro-level “Respectful Care for Newborns, Infants & Toddlers” course (either in-person or via video streaming) and immediately wondered “but what exactly does narration look and sound like? How do I know I’m doing it right? How do I explain this to my nanny families?” or any other in-depth question about the content of the course, there is a new, more intensive course opening later this year… “Respectful Care: the Advanced Course” which will launch this summer, and you can join the waitlist HERE to receive priority registration and a waitlist discount.