Men ‘discouraged’ from childcare jobs

JUST one in 200 people working in the childcare sector in Ireland are men, a conference heard yesterday.

And it was claimed efforts to balance the caring environment are not being helped by some school guidance counsellors who are discouraging male students who express an interest in childcare as a career.

“There are an awful lot of men who want to work in the caring profession but they are being actively discouraged from realising their ambition,” said Jan Petersen, a lecturer in early childhood development at Dublin Institute of Technology.