You go to university to study for your childcare degree, get into debt and then after all your hard work you are awarded your certificate and when you go for a job interview you find out that your childcare degree is not full and relevant and to make it so you will need to study again for an NVQ.
This is so unfair or is it?
For a childcare qualification to be full and relevant it needs to be consistent with the Quality Assurance Agency(QAA) for Higher Education benchmark standard for Early Childhood Studies. Students also need to have been assessed on their practical skills within an early years setting. Other Level 6 degrees are BA in Early Years, Care and Education, BA Hons in Childhood Studies and BA Hons in Early Childhood Studies to name but a few.
So many universities do not insist that their students work in a nursery/pre school or similar if they do not have another childcare qualification. Students know the theory but not the practical. By not working in a nursery whilst studying how do you know that you will enjoy working with children? Your personality may not be appropriate – quickly losing your patience and temper, not being able to work as part of a team etc.
What also is worse that some universities who offer the course are not on the DfE approved list
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/early-years-qualifications-finder
It is important that universities need to be honest with their students about what their course entails, whether the students need to work and be assessed in a childcare setting and whether their degrees are full and relevant.
And it is not just the Level 6 childcare qualifications that is causing confusions it is also Level 2 and above. Level 2 childcare courses are offered at schools. These are not full and relevant Childcare qualifications and is not made clear to students who are studying them. Moreover there are so many online childcare courses which are not approved as there are no workplace assessments let alone coming face to face with a tutor. Why are these courses not approved? Most of them only take a few months to complete unlike the official courses which can take up to 18 months. When studying your tutor will not meet you so how can you prove that you have studied by yourself for the course and of course not being assessed in a setting how can your tutor know that you are suitable?
The DfE needs to sort this confusion out and make it clearer so that people can sign up to a full and relevant courses and come away fully qualified.