You may by now have heard about the new APEL qualification, which offers experienced childcare workers, early years practitioners and playworkers a fast-track route to a Level 3 qualification. The Level 3 Certificate in work with children (Early Years or Playwork) provides a suitable Accreditation of Prior Experience and Learning - APEL for short.
Listed on the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority national qualifications framework at Level 3, APEL is for experienced early years practitioners working at Level 3, but without a relevant qualification, or who gained qualifications before the Children Act 1989. Most people in this position are supervisors or leaders of settings or parts of settings.
APEL is different because it is not a taught college course. Instead, you work with a mentor and use your existing experience and learning as evidence. Your employment experience will need to be assessed before you can register for the qualification.
The certificate has two endorsements based on the setting you work in: either a Level 3 Certificate in work with children (early years) or a Level 3 Certificate in work with children (playwork).
Getting started
The first thing to do is find an assessment centre. Your Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership should be able to help you.
Before the centre can register you they will need to check that you are over 25, have had sufficient employment experience over the past five years and that you are currently working at Level 3.
The centre will want to see documentary evidence that you meet all three criteria. A birth certificate or passport will normally be sufficient to prove your age and a letter or contract from your employer can show evidence that you are working at Level 3.
Evidence gathering
Proving your employment experience can be much more difficult. A points formula is used to work out whether you have sufficient relevant employment experience to satisfy the entry requirements. This includes paid or unpaid work, either full-time or part-time. Although some Level 2 jobs (assistant level) will count towards your score, working at Level 3 - that is without direct supervision, will give you the most points. Your centre will then be able to help you work out your score.
Evidence will take many different forms as we all have varied employment and experience, but it must:
* be authentic (not copies of documents)
* be sufficient (information from different sources that make up a convincing package or single sources)
* state the level at which you have worked ( Level 2 or Level 3)
* be on headed paper
* be auditable or trackable.
Examples of evidence could include letters of appointment from employers or confirmation from local authority professionals. We suggest the following steps to help you assess your employment experience: Step 1 Go through your employment experience over the past five years.
Step 2 Check that you have evidence to support your claims. If not, go back to your employers and ask for written confirmation of the length of time employed and at what level. Put together in a file pay slips, contracts and job descriptions.
Step 3 Take your Level 2 and Level 3 experience and list the average number of hours per week and number of weeks per year. Total these up.
Developing a portfolio
Your centre will provide you with a mentor to help you collect evidence for your portfolio. This portfolio is the assessment for the Certificate and is marked by a scrutineer in your centre and externally by a panel of experts.
Unit 1: Promoting good quality provision
At least two professional testimonies are required from people who can vouch for your practice, which means they will have seen you at work in the setting. Professional testimony is given by referees who are independent, which means they cannot be related to you or have a vested interest in your achieving the qualification. Professional testimony must follow a series of headings with quality judgments against each. You will need to provide supporting evidence for each of the following:
* planning and preparation of activities and programmes
* practice monitoring, reviewing and evaluating activities and programmes
* communication skills with children, families, colleagues and agencies
* team support and motivation
* organisation and management
* reliability and commitment
* professional development.
Collect evidence to help your referees provide their testimonies, such as curriculum or play plans, minutes of meetings, staff appraisals, professional development.
Your centre will advise you, but referees could be visiting professionals, development workers, advisers and support teachers. They should be able to comment on your work performance for at least six months in the past three years, have relevant occupational competence and provide an accompanying letter on headed paper. Employers may have a vested interest but can provide additional testimony.
Unit 2: Reflect on practice
This is ten sections on your practice in work with children, each marked separately. This reflective account allows the scrutineer and expert panel to see how much you know and understand about what you do.
It is important that you do not simply describe your practice, but say why and how you practice. Reflection is a skill that you will need to develop.
Make sure you start to think about your practice before you write the reflective account. Remember also to collect and file evidence of any courses you have attended or continuing professional development. NW Our new series (see column) will cover each of the ten sections in detail in the coming months.
Further information
* CACHE, tel: 01727 847 636
* City and Guilds Affinity, tel: 0113 380 8563
* Edexcel Foundation, tel: 0870 240 9800
* National Open College Network, tel: 01132 268 080
* See 'Down to experience', Nursery World, p14, 30 October 2003, for a previous feature on APEL
* Contact Duo Consulting if you are a centre interested in mentor training.
Duo also offers the APEL qualification online. Duo, tel: 0151 334 0330, e-mail info@ apelme. co.uk, www.apelme.co.uk
