The qualification, which has been developed by the DfES and SPRITO and should be available from September, is aimed at those practitioners without the necessary qualifications or whose qualifications were gained prior to the Children Act 1989.
Explaining the rationale behind the award, a DfES spokeswoman said, 'We are aware that many settings do not have sufficient people with the required qualifications for their job role, despite the fact that they often have substantial experience.'
The Government is anxious to speed up the process of qualification for those with relevant experience - it could take just 12 weeks - as there could be up to 20,000 people who need to achieve a level 3 to meet the daycare standards.
Candidates must be over 25 and have relevant employment experience over the past five years, including working at level 3 without direct supervision.
'Those who do not satisfy these needs will be expected to undertake a level 3 qualification on the National Qualifications Framework,' the spokeswoman added.
The qualification, which uses the concept of the Accreditation of Prior Experience and Learning (APEL), requires candidates to build a slim portfolio containing a minimum of two professional testimonies and an account that reflects on the candidate's understanding of either early years or playwork practice.
Lynette Lee, training development manager for the National Day Nurseries Association, said the organisation welcomed the new qualification, which would 'give many valuable, experienced people in the sector the opportunity to get much-deserved professional recognition'. She added, 'We hope nursery employers will also support the qualification which will in turn help them in meeting national standards on staffing.'
Helen Mardell, director at training provider Smart Training, welcomed the new level 3 route but stressed that its success 'depends totally upon the quality of the assessment process, which must be rigorous'.
She said, 'There are a lot of people in early years who are very experienced and knowledgeable, but hold old qualifications and this is a good way of bringing those qualifications up to date. I do think the job could be done through the NVQ route. But the NVQ is quite a long route for many people who are experienced and they have made a sound judgement about who the APEL qualification is suitable for.'
* See News, Out of School CACHE has indicated that it has submitted a 'Level 3 Certificate in Work with Children' for approval by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). The DfES spokeswoman said, 'We have had discussions with several awarding bodies who are interested in offering the qualification and are awaiting confirmation.'
where you have got competent and highly experienced assessors who are able to find good quality evidence easily