The Credibility Test: What Happens When a Training Provider Trains Itself

Layla MacFadyen and Rosie Presland were already running full-time teams at Parenta when they took on the Level 5 Operations Departmental Manager Apprenticeship, a qualification neither of them needed to prove their capability. Both completed it with Distinction, the highest grade available.

The result carries weight beyond the qualification itself: Parenta’s core business is training early years educators, so when two of its own managers complete a CMI-accredited leadership apprenticeship alongside their day-to-day roles, it demonstrates the company’s confidence in the model it delivers to its customers.

Two Managers, Two Very Different Routes to the Same Result

Layla MacFadyen leads Parenta’s team of Training Advisors, the people who guide learners and employers through the early years apprenticeship system. She joined Parenta in August 2021 after four years as a Nursery Manager at an Ofsted Outstanding-rated setting, so she came into the apprenticeship already fluent in the sector she now supports from the other side of the desk.

Layla MacFadyen, Training Advice and Guidance Manager, said:

“I’m excited to share that my certificate for my Level 5 Operations Departmental Manager, achieved with distinction, has arrived. Even more exciting is implementing all that I have learnt, and I’m already seeing positive changes across the teams I support.”

Rosie Presland took a different path to the same result. She leads customer success strategy across Parenta’s early years software and training divisions, drawing on more than 9 years of experience in SaaS and apprenticeship services. Her End Point Assessment carried two separate Distinctions: one for the professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio of evidence, and one for the project proposal, presentation and questioning.

Rosie Presland, Customer Experience Manager, said:

“The Level 5 was one of the most challenging yet rewarding things I’ve ever done in my professional career. It pushed me outside my comfort zone, challenged the way I think and gave me a real sense of achievement. I’m incredibly proud to have achieved a Distinction, and it’s shown me just how much you can accomplish when you commit to something and keep pushing yourself.”

What the Level 5 Operations Departmental Manager Apprenticeship Covers

The qualification is accredited by the Chartered Management Institute and sits at the same level as a foundation degree or Higher National Diploma. It’s built for people who already run a department or business unit, not for people starting out in management, so the content assumes you’re leading a team while you study rather than preparing to lead one someday.

Across the programme, learners work through strategic planning, resource management, stakeholder engagement and risk management, then sit an End Point Assessment made up of two parts: a professional discussion backed by a portfolio of evidence, and a project proposal with a presentation and questioning session. Both Layla and Rosie sat that assessment while continuing to run their teams, which meant every piece of coursework had a live team attached to it rather than a hypothetical one.

Why This Kind of Investment Matters to an Apprenticeship Provider

Dr Allan Presland, CEO of Parenta, framed the result as a test of consistency between what the company delivers and what it does internally:

“Layla and Rosie’s results say a great deal about the standard of leadership we’re building across Parenta. We ask our own training teams to help other organisations invest in their people, so it means a lot when our own managers complete a Level 5 Operations Departmental Manager Apprenticeship with Distinction, while doing the job at the same time. It’s a genuine credit to both of them.”

Both managers led live teams for the full length of their apprenticeships. There was no classroom substitute for the real decisions they had to make about resourcing, stakeholders and risk. That’s the point the qualification is designed around, and it’s also the strongest argument for why other employers should look at management apprenticeships instead of, or alongside, traditional leadership courses.

The Wider Case for Work-Based Management Training

Nursery owners and large nursery chains face a similar version of this problem: a room leader or deputy manager shows promise, but to pull them out for a full-time course would mean covering their hours, their ratios and their relationships with parents for months at a time – something which is not sustainable in the early years sector. A work-based apprenticeship removes that trade-off. The learning happens alongside the job, so the team keeps its manager, and the manager keeps building the skills the role actually needs.

Layla and Rosie’s results are a working example of that model: Parenta didn’t need to send its managers elsewhere to prove the point: another Level 5 qualification (Early Years Lead Practitioner) sits inside the apprenticeship provision it already delivers successfully to nurseries across the UK.