What a week it's been for news in the early years education and care sector, with the launch of the final Early Years Foundation Stage materials, a damning report into the low success rates for early years NVQ apprenticeships, and the release of the Government's consultation into nursery education funding, among much else. You can read all about it in our bumper news section, starting on page 4. The regulations for numbers and levels of qualified staff found in an appendix to the EYFS framework document remain dispiritingly unambitious, with only one of member staff required to have a level 3 qualification and only half of the rest needing to be at least level 2 in most circumstances.
What a week it's been for news in the early years education and care sector, with the launch of the final Early Years Foundation Stage materials, a damning report into the low success rates for early years NVQ apprenticeships, and the release of the Government's consultation into nursery education funding, among much else. You can read all about it in our bumper news section, starting on page 4.
The regulations for numbers and levels of qualified staff found in an appendix to the EYFS framework document remain dispiritingly unambitious, with only one of member staff required to have a level 3 qualification and only half of the rest needing to be at least level 2 in most circumstances.
Mind you, these stipulations don't seem quite so low when you take into account the results of the Adult Learning Inspectorate's report into early years training provision, which found the sector at the bottom of the class for NVQ pass rates, with only 30 per cent of apprentices gaining their NVQ 3 in 2005-06 and considerably fewer succeeding in what would be deemed a reasonable time frame.
Turn to the latest edition of Nursery Management, free this week, to see how some training providers are bucking the trend. We'll be returning to this theme in future issues of Nursery World.
