Childcare diploma changes will not affect enrolled students

Students already enrolled on Level 3 diploma courses in childcare will not miss out when a replacement qualification for early year workers comes into force in September.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) is developing a new Level 3 diploma for the children and young people’s workforce, set to start in colleges this September, replacing existing Level 3 qualifications in early years, social care and learning development support services.

The qualification is part of the council’s work to rationalise and clarify qualifications under the new Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF).

But colleges that have already advertised existing courses and offered places have raised concerns that their students could be disadvantaged.

CWDC has now decided to support the continuation of the Cache Level 3 diploma in childcare and education and the Edexcel BTEC national diploma in children’s care, learning and development for 16- to 19-year-old college-based learners for the September 2010 take-up.

Richard Dorrance, chief executive of awarding body Cache, said: “Our centres told us that many prospective learners had already chosen the Cache diploma for next year, so we’re very pleased that they will now be able to register on this qualification up until December 2010.”

Pauline Jones, Senior Programme Manager at CWDC, said the decision had been made after discussions with awarding bodies.

She added: “We are not prepared to disadvantage learners in our drive to rationalise and clarify qualifications and deliver the benefits of the new QCF.

“We have listened carefully to what awarding organisations have said and have acted to ensure that everyone who wants to take up a place on a course in September 2010 has an offer available to them.”