Skip to content
Aethel

For hiring teams

Interview childcare and early education candidates with one link

Send a childcare or early education candidate one link. An AI interviewer asks about their real work, and you decide from the quoted scores.

Create an employer account Try the candidate practice room

Free to start while Aethel is in early access. No card needed.

Hiring for childcare and early education

What makes this hard to screen

References and warmth are hard to judge from a resume, and many good childcare workers have short or informal work histories. What matters most is how they keep children safe and calm on a hard day. That is easier to hear in their own stories than to read.

Roles this field covers: childcare worker, preschool teacher, daycare assistant, nanny, teacher aide, after-school program leader, early childhood educator.

Listen for these in a transcript

  • Describes steady supervision and clear routines, including during busy moments.
  • Responds to a child's behavior calmly with a specific approach.
  • Adapts an activity for one child and keeps parents and coworkers informed.

Warning signs

  • Leaves a group unsupervised, even briefly.
  • Uses shaming or harsh punishment.
  • Ignores a safety or health concern, or cannot describe any specific child or activity.

How it works

How to interview with a link

  1. Step 1: Create a link for the role

    Choose Childcare and early education, the level, and a specialty such as childcare worker or preschool teacher.

  2. Step 2: Send it to your candidates

    Share it wherever you already find childcare and early education candidates.

  3. Step 3: Candidates interview on their own time

    It takes about 15 minutes, and they know the interviewer is an AI.

  4. Step 4: Review and decide

    Mark each one Advance, Not a fit, or Undecided.

The interview

What the interviewer covers

It follows up on each answer and picks the childcare and early education topics that fit the role.

  • A child who was upset or struggling and how they helped
  • Keeping a group safe during a busy or unusual moment
  • A daily routine or activity they planned and how it went
  • A hard conversation with a parent
  • A concern about a child they raised with someone
  • Adapting an activity for a child who needed something different
  • Working with a coworker who did things differently

What the scoring looks for

Strong work: the candidate keeps children safe with steady supervision and clear routines, responds to behavior calmly with a specific approach, adapts activities to each child, and keeps parents and coworkers informed.

Warning signs: the candidate leaves a group unsupervised, uses shaming or harsh punishment, ignores a safety or health concern, or cannot describe any specific child or activity. The scoring AI is told that an area showing one scores below 60.

Your questions

Sample must-ask questions

Up to three per link. The interviewer is told to ask each one as written, and every result shows whether it was asked word for word, asked in other words, or not asked. Examples:

  1. Tell me about a time a child was upset and you helped them calm down.
  2. Walk me through how you keep a group safe during an outing or a busy moment.
  3. Describe a hard conversation with a parent and how you handled it.

Starter templates

Starter roles

Start a link from one of these and edit anything.

  • Childcare worker

    Focus: Supervision and safety, daily routines, calming upset toddlers, daily notes for parents

  • Nanny

    Focus: Daily care and routines, safety at home and on outings, meals and naps, keeping parents updated

  • Preschool teacher

    Focus: Planning play-based activities, classroom routines, guiding behavior, talking with families

  • Teacher aide

    Focus: Supporting the lead teacher, small group help, classroom routines, keeping students safe

Results

What you see for each candidate

  • The full transcript

    Every answer, in order.

  • “Not enough evidence”

    Shown instead of a guess, never as a low score.

  • Your decision and private notes

    Only your team sees them.

The four scored areas

Each out of 100, with quotes.

Problem solving (upsets, behavior, surprises)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes a specific situation with a child or a group: what was happening, what they tried, and how it turned out.
Safety and routines (supervision, routines, activities)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes how they keep children safe and learning: supervision, daily routines, planned activities, health and safety rules, and what they change when a child needs something different.
Communication (children, parents, daily notes)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes explaining things to children, parents or coworkers: instructions, daily updates, notes home, or a hard conversation with a parent. Answers that respond to the question asked, in a clear order, with a concrete example, also count, but only up to 80 on their own. Grammar, word choice and fluency are never judged.
Working with families and staff (parents, coworkers, specialists)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes working with parents, coworkers, teachers, directors or specialists, including handling a disagreement or a concern about a child. Saying "we" is not, by itself, collaboration evidence.

Aethel never scores faces, voices or accents, and does not verify degrees, licenses or work history. How Aethel uses AI

FAQ

Questions hiring teams ask

Does Aethel run background checks or check childcare licensing?

No. Aethel does not run background checks and does not check any license or clearance. Do those yourself before anyone works with children.

Is this a good fit for nannies and family childcare?

Yes. Set the specialty to nanny and the questions turn to routines in a home, one child or siblings, and talking with parents.

Can candidates without much formal experience do well?

The scoring reads what they say they did and why. If their experience comes from babysitting or caring for relatives, they can talk about that.

See also the questions companies ask and the pricing page.

Send your first childcare or early education interview link

Create an employer account How it works for companies

Want to show candidates what to expect? What the interview covers for childcare and early education staff

Interview candidates in other fields