Training Today: Early Years Teacher status - Leading the pack?

More than 40 training providers will open their doors to graduates and undergraduates hoping to achieve Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS) from September. Over the next few years, hundreds of Early Years Teachers (EYTs) will join the 600 who have already gained the status.

These supposedly better-qualified graduates will lead the high-quality teaching of under-fives in early years settings or schools. EYTS replaces Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) and is to be considered equivalent to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), although it doesn't give entitlement to the same pay scale as QTS. But the qualification has not been met with universal applause.

Training providers have developed EYTS training courses in line with National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) early years Teachers' Standards. Nature Trails Day Nursery director Alison Dyke says these will help professionalise early years teaching, in particular because they expect EYTs to 'underpin practice development with evidence-based ideas'. But she questions whether EYTs will have greater ability to lead and develop practice than the Early Years Professionals (EYPs) they are intended to replace.