Adnan, a man in a woman’s world of nursery care

BUCKING the trend . . . Adnan Rahman loves working with children

COPPICE teenager Adnan Rahman is doing his bit to reverse a worrying national trend by becoming a fully fledged child carer.

Recent figures show there are only 56 men working in state nurseries in the whole of England and none of these are under 25.

Some of the men surveyed said they felt that being a child carer was a woman’s job and said they felt parents would not trust them to look after their children.

But Adnan has encountered nothing but support from staff and parents at the Kids Are Us nursery school in Chadderton.

Paul Dean, centre manager for training charity Rathbone which helped Adnan on his career path, said: “The reason why some young people struggle is that they don’t have any positive male role model to look up to. Within moments of watching Adnan you can see he has a natural rapport with children and is able to make a positive difference to their day.”

Adnan was studying travel and tourism at college but changed his mind when he realised he was good with children.

He said: “I knew travel and tourism wasn’t really for me. My mum saw me babysitting and thought I was good with children. That view was supported by Rathbone who placed me at Kids Are Us and now I love being with the children, taking them for walks and reading them stories.”

Adnan is currently completing a an apprenticeship in childcare which sees him caring for babies and toddlers and he is working with 16-year-old trainee Gavin Woodward from Middleton.

Michelle Iqbal, manager at Kids Are Us, said: “Both lads are real team players who show initiative and are reliable. These are the first two males we’ve had working with us since we opened in 2002 and they’ve done brilliantly. People should realise that the world has changed and that if girls can be mechanics, lads should be able to look after children.”