ABOUT EARLY YEARS TALENT
We look past the résumé
Early Years Talent is a specialist permanent recruitment business serving Australia’s early childhood education and care sector.
A résumé can show where somebody has worked and what they studied. It rarely shows how they think, what they contributed or what they may be capable of next.
Early Years Talent brings that missing context forward.
Why this sector needed a different approach
Before specialising in early childhood education, Josh Freeman worked in recruitment across different industries.
Early childhood stood apart.
In early childhood, a permanent appointment affects more than a roster. It influences team stability, professional practice, family confidence and the continuity children experience.
Again and again, Josh met educators and teachers who were skilled, thoughtful and deeply committed to children. Very little of what made them good at their work appeared in their applications.
Recruitment was reducing capable people to qualifications, job titles and availability. Early Years Talent developed around a different idea: the person behind the paperwork deserves proper attention.
A résumé shows the past. It does not set the ceiling
A résumé records the opportunities somebody has already received. It should not determine the limit placed on what that person may be capable of next.
Titles reflect opportunity, not capacity
A job title shows what somebody has previously been trusted to do. It does not reveal everything they may be capable of doing next.
Capability often appears before promotion
Leadership can be seen in the problems somebody solves, the colleagues they influence and the responsibilities they assume before their title changes.
Context changes the story
A career break, sideways move or short period in a role can look concerning until the circumstances and the decisions behind it are understood.
Potential still requires evidence
Looking beyond the résumé does not mean lowering the standard. Readiness must still be demonstrated through judgement, initiative, specific examples and referee-supported evidence.
A recommendation has to mean something
Early Years Talent does not treat every introduction as equally valuable.
If Early Years Talent believes a candidate falls short of the standard a client should reasonably expect, the client is told directly.
The client may still choose to meet that person. However, Early Years Talent will not charge for an introduction it cannot recommend as providing proper value for the client’s investment.
That distinction matters. A paid recommendation should carry more weight than permission to interview somebody.
When clients say they feel understood
Long-standing clients often describe the experience in one simple sentence:
“Josh, you really just get us.”
That understanding does not come from another elaborate briefing form. It develops through attention, memory and repeated experience with the service.
Early Years Talent retains the context: how the organisation operates, what its leaders value, what has worked before and the qualities that tend to matter within the team. The service does not have to explain itself from the beginning every time another vacancy opens.
Sometimes the person introduced is exactly what the service needed, including when the service had not yet found the words to describe that person.
What this looks like in practice
A team that grew with the service
Eastern suburbs, Melbourne | May 2026
Early Years Talent began supporting this independent provider when its first service opened. The initial appointments focused on educators who could grow with the organisation, not simply fill gaps in the roster.
Several later progressed into coordinator and leadership roles. Four years on, the service was fully staffed for the first time, many original appointees remained, and educators were waiting for opportunities to join the team.
Fully staffed, with educators waiting to join.
One appointment with wider consequences
Northern suburbs, Brisbane | December 2025
Despite strong demand in the surrounding community, this large early learning service was experiencing low occupancy. The search focused on a Kindergarten Teacher with strong pedagogical capability and the warmth to build genuine relationships with children and families.
The appointment strengthened the educational program, helped rebuild family confidence and contributed to the service moving from low occupancy to a waiting list in less than twelve months.
From low occupancy to a waiting list in less than twelve months.
The résumé that undersold the educator
South East and Bayside Melbourne | June 2026
On paper, the educator appeared unremarkable. The résumé listed the expected qualifications and employment history but revealed little about the person behind it.
Structured conversations and referee discussions uncovered somebody who remained calm under pressure, treated people with compassion, earned colleagues’ respect and built exceptional relationships with children. Those qualities mattered, even though the résumé had failed to communicate them.
The strongest evidence was not on the résumé.
Founder-led, not founder-only
Josh Freeman founded and leads Early Years Talent. He remains closely involved in client relationships, candidate assessment and the judgement behind recommendations.
The business has been supported by staff at different stages and engages specialist consultants when a complex search or candidate situation benefits from additional expertise.
Whoever contributes to the work is expected to meet the same standard: understand the context, keep the evidence clear and give a straight answer.
Clients tend to remember feeling understood. Candidates tend to remember being taken seriously.
That combination of attention, judgement and candour is not an extra added to the recruitment process. It is the standard Early Years Talent applies to the work.
Specialist, permanent, early childhood
Early Years Talent focuses on permanent recruitment across Australian early childhood education and care.
The purpose is straightforward: bring forward the evidence and context a résumé cannot provide on its own, giving clients fewer introductions and better reasons to consider them.
Looking for more than another résumé?
Services seeking a considered recommendation from people who understand early childhood and are prepared to give a straight answer can contact Early Years Talent.