Take-up has so far been healthy for Scotland's new BA in Childhood Practice, which is the first qualification to be offered as part of a national overhaul of professional awards.
Designed for lead practitioners and managers, the level 9 course is the first to meet the new standards developed by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), QAA Scotland and others in the education, voluntary and private sectors.
The new Standard for Childhood Practice has been created to help early years and childcare workers follow a skilled career path and help workers to be recognised as professionals. In the longer term, all early years and childcare managers will be required to gain new awards of 360 credits and SCQF level 9 for registration with the SSSC.
In October a total of 220 students enrolled on the degree course, currently being debuted by the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute and the universities of Strathclyde, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Lead practitioners and managers achieving the award will be qualified to work with children up to 16 years of age.
At the SSSC, senior communications officer Amanda Waugh explains the impetus behind the development of the degree. 'The SSCC wanted to develop leadership capacity in the sector by creating a workforce that is led by a level 9 qualified professional. This meant developing a qualification at SCQF level 9 with an output of 360 credits. The award had to be work-based, and it had to allow the recognition of prior learning.
'The process of arriving at the benchmark standard for the degree was informed by a number of different theoretical perspectives linked to childhood, childcare and professional learning. Its development drew together the academic community, awarding bodies, employers, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in Scotland and the SSSC.'
Ms Waugh reports there is a growing community of practice around the degree, with employers taking the lead to develop mentoring programmes to support learners on the Childhood Practice programmes. 'It is already having an influence on policy development in Scotland and is set to have a significant influence on practice,' she says.
The course takes a holistic view of children's development, learning and well-being and covers areas such as:
- Protecting and caring for children
- Working with parents and carers, families, communities and other agencies
- Developing practice in the leadership of others which is informed by an understanding of children and of childhood
- Developing knowledge and understanding of relevant organisational frameworks
- Developing a critical understanding of policies, practices and legal requirements relevant to the service
- Fostering understanding in how young children learn and develop
- Leading others in supporting play and learning and in how to support children to become healthy, active and achieving
- Supporting team work and collaboration
- Business management of the services.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.qaa.ac.uk/ academicintrastructure/benchmark/scottish/earlyyears.asp
CASE STUDY
Judith Yuile enrolled for the BA in Childhood Practice with Strathclyde University in September and so far is managing to juggle it with family life and her job as a childminder. She has an HNC in Childcare and Education. It will take her four years to complete her degree.
'I've been itching to better my CV to help me to develop my career, and this is ideal because I can work it around my hours as a childminder,' she says. 'I attend college every Tuesday evening and also some full days on Saturdays.
'Just having an HNC is not enough these days. I have been looking at job shares and the market is very competitive.
'I am 44 years old and thought I would be one of the oldest students on the course, but in fact there are others who are older than me. It is a real mix of individuals. Whereas those who are in nurseries have the benefit of working with larger groups of children and having more resources at their disposal, I have more flexibility in terms of time. I have been very impressed with the way the tutors cater for everybody.
'At the moment I am studying a movement and dance module that examines how children learn to be aware of their own movements at an early age and how important music and singing are to their development. We have just covered communication, which was fascinating and provided a wealth of information.
'The content of the course is what drew me to it in the first place. Ultimately this degree will really help my CV to stand out, but I'm not sure yet where I want to go with it.'
AIMS AND AWARDS
The requirements of the Standard for Childhood Practice are based on Scotland's vision for a manager/lead practitioner with the ability to:
- lead and support the provision of high quality and flexible early years and childcare services
- work in partnership with families and communities
- collaborate with other agencies and other children's services.
Other programmes being developed to support the achievement of the Standard for Childhood Practice include:
- new top-up awards for practitioners with HNC/SVQ3 and those with additional qualifications such as HND/SVQ4, PDA, Registered Managers Award (RMA)
- new awards for candidates with degrees or equivalent awards.
The standards work across key areas such as knowledge and understanding, values and personal commitment, skills and abilities, communication, collaboration and partnership, and leadership and management.
