From cruise to childcare!

Childcare wasn’t on Kirsty Rochford’s radar when she began a career on cruise ships after gaining a degree in Hospitality Management. 

However, her experience of working in the cruise ‘kids clubs’ left her with a new-found love of looking after children. 

It wasn’t until she moved to Orkney that she decided to switch from hospitality - a path she had found she was no longer enjoying – to working as a Youth Development Worker at Voluntary Action Orkney, getting teenagers and young people involved in volunteering. 

Then she spotted an advert from the Council’s Early Learning and Childcare Service for the chance to do an SVQ in Childcare whilst working within a nursery. 

Kirsty said: “I was on maternity leave after having my second son when I saw the advert and was very wary about giving up a secure job, however I knew that working with younger children was what I wanted to do. I decided that life is too short to say, ‘what if?’ so applied for the role and the rest is history.” 

The application process was straightforward, and she started at Willow Tree Nursery, which looks after children from 6 months – 3yrs old, in August 2023. 

“My youngest son had a place there, so I was initially sceptical about working there too, but the team was very supportive of my situation and made it a very easy transition for us. I have learnt so much from every one of the staff that work there - they are a great group of people who really care about the children that they look after, and I absolutely loved my time there.” 

Kirsty recently started working at St Andrews Nursery and is looking forward to gaining experience working in a 3-5yr setting. 

“It is very different to working with babies and toddlers so I’m excited to learn lots of new skills that I can use going forward in my career.” 

If you want to work with young children, enjoying a caring role and having fun, then early learning and childcare could be just the job for you! 

“Do it! You won’t look back,” Kirsty continued. “I love seeing how each child develops, from the tiny things to the big milestones, watching them grow and learn and helping them do this makes the job so rewarding. 

“Witnessing a child finally conquer their own personal challenges, whether it’s physical or mental, to enable them to fully enjoy themselves at nursery is wonderful. Getting to know the child and their families and building relationships with them is also really lovely.” 

We have lots of opportunities to work in Early Learning and Childcare – check out more at www.orkney.gov.uk/elcjobs