Continuing Professional Development - New Level 3 proves its worth

Being able to support young children's progress in speech and language is a strong focus for all those settings providing the free entitlement for two-year-olds. In line with this, a Level 3 Award launched last October is gathering momentum and helping practitioners to gain vital skills.

Supporting Children and Young People's Speech, Language and Communication has been designed by the Communication Trust and is a City & Guilds Level 3 Award qualification, which sits on the QCF. Anne Fox, director of the Communication Trust, says the content reflects Cathy Nutbrown's recommendations. 'In her final report she gave a strong recommendation for the workforce to be trained to Level 3 and be able to support children's communication development. This qualification is very much a solution to that requirement.'

UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Made up of two mandatory units and one optional unit, the L3 is designed for those already working in an early years setting and is partly assessed in the workplace.

It represents 90 guided learning hours and provides three credits.

By the end learners will understand the importance of communication and the pattern of typical development, and be able to support the communication development of all children and recognise non-typical development.

Testimony to the success of the training is provided by Nottingham County Council which worked in partnership with its Children's Centre Speech and Language Therapy Advisory Service and local FE college last December, to deliver it to 30 practitioners.

The learners report that the course has had a positive impact on their practice and confidence, equipping them to give accurate developmental advice to parents.

Nottingham's Language for Life steering group is keen to ensure sustainability of the training and is expecting a sizeable cohort for the next intake in December.