Meet the 16-year-old boy who looks after 13 babies

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Harley Keenan looks after almost as many babies as he has clocked in years walking this earth. The sixteen-year-old nursery apprentice works in the baby room at the Buttercup Corner Day Nursery in Chadderton.

At its busiest there are as many as 13 babies under his and his colleagues’ supervision. The idea would probably terrify most teenagers.

But for Harley, it’s ‘the most amazing feeling in the world’. “It’s their little faces when they’re giggling and happy,” Harley said. “Or when they’re shouting ‘hiyaa!’ at you from the other side of the room.” Harley first started at the nursery as holiday cover as a favour to a family friend - but he was quickly drawn in by the joy of the job.

He applied for the role straight after his GCSEs and is now on his first rotation as an apprentice. As well as being one of the youngest early years educators at Buttercup, Harley is the only male among 25 to 30 women. “It’s a very rewarding career but not many men do it,” he explained. “It’s important because there are a lot of boys who don’t have that role model.” Only around two to three percent of early years educators are men, according to the latest government statistics (though these do exclude apprentices like Harley).