Childcare Qualifications

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The range of qualifications today is very different from when I qualified as a nursery nurse in 1990. When I first started out in my career as a nursery nurse there were a number of local day care settings within which childcare would be run by an older ‘grandmother figure’. This figure, (it was still relatively unusual in the 1990’s to see males in the childcare profession), often didn’t have any formal qualifications in childcare, but had a great number of years’ experience in guiding children’s learning, having gathered tacit knowledge and often a seemingly endless supply of patience and kindness. That said, there is a possibility that I have put rose tinted glasses on during my reminiscing of this period. I accept that there were also …show more content…

The combination of the Rumbold Report and the establishment of Ofsted was the reason why the early learning goals and then the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS) for children under five and further childcare qualifications were brought in. This introduction of early years’ qualifications led to a number of practitioners refusing or resisting undertaking a course of study for qualifications in a career that they had been participating in for years. As a result, a large number of highly experienced, quality practitioners left childcare. These practitioners were a serious loss to the industry. In 2003, the Department for Education and Skills published their guidance: National Standards for Under 8s Day care and Child minding. This guidance was a set of 14 national standards which established a baseline of quality that all day care and child minding providers were expected to meet. These standards were intended to drive continuous improvement in quality in all care settings for children under eight. The standards identified criteria on the suitability of carers and the qualifications/experience needed (DfES …show more content…

The reasoning behind the introduction of the EYFS was to strengthen government policy to see a general improvement in the nation’s childcare by instituting relevant qualifications. Over the next decade most practitioners undertook specific early years qualifications. This was to ensure that they could maintain their position in their careers. However, some of these qualifications were more inclined to be accepted by local authorities than others. Some qualifications placed greater emphasis on knowledge and academic abilities, while others needed more experience and practical skills. The problem was that there was not a national uniform

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