Nursery World - Nursery Management: Qualifications

What does the history of early years policy and qualifications tell us about today’s workforce? Hannah Crown charts developments from the NNEB to T-Levels

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For 50 years, the early years sector had a ‘gold standard’: the NNEB. Then, the National Nursery Examination Board, which was both a qualification and an examining and validating body, was superseded by a new awarding body, CACHE, at a time when parental demand, Government investment and market forces were combining to create a huge new private childcare sector.

Swathes of new qualifications hit the market from the mid-80s, to the extent that in 2012 there were 445 qualifications at different levels. These were swept aside in 2014 by the Early Years Educator following a sector-wide qualifications review, and this is set to be superseded once again by the (yet to be launched) Education and Childcare T-Level following a national rethink of vocational qualifications.

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