Level 3 diplomas win reprieve after protest

The delay, which was confirmed on Tuesday, comes after further education providers and awarding bodies raised concerns that the proposed Level 3 Children and Young People's Workforce Diploma does not contain enough guided learning hours to enable students who take the qualification to continue on to higher education without additional study.

From September, colleges will introduce at least three pathways for the new level 3 qualification, which is meant to replace all other level 3 childcare qualifications (Analysis, 29 April 2009).

One pathway will be aimed at students who are in full-time employment, a second pathway will be for those who want part-time education and a third will be for those who opt for full-time education.

However, colleges can now opt to delay the introduction of the full-time pathway until 2011 and continue offering the CACHE and Edexcel diplomas for students who begin the course before the end of December.

A source told Nursery World, ‘The CWDC is walking into an argument over the size of the qualification. The current CACHE and Edexcel diplomas in childcare are equivalent to three A levels. However, the CWDC's level 3 qualification consists of only 475 guided learning hours, which means that it could have a lower equivalence. Colleges will be very pleased that the existing diplomas have been extended until the end of 2010, because it gives everybody extra time to ensure that the CWDC diploma meets the needs of all those who want to study it.'

Pauline Jones, senior programme manager at CWDC, said, ‘We are not prepared to disadvantage learners in our drive to rationalise and clarify qualifications and deliver the benefits of the new Qualification and Credit Framework.