Playworkers boost status with degree

SkillsActive, the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure and Learning, said that the new initiative was now in the final stages of development. It will lead to a level 5 qualification , the equivalent to an intermediate level qualification on the Framework for Higher Educational Qualifications.

Courses will be offered on a full-time or part-time basis - two years or pro-rata equivalent - at flexible times and in modes suited to the learner. Students completing the course can move to senior practitioner status or to further honours degree study.

Chris Taylor, consultant to SkillsActive for the Sector Endorsed Foundation Degree in Playwork (SEFDPW), said, 'The qualification is likely to have a broad appeal, especially to workers who have been in post for some time, and want career progression without having to move into management, development or training.'

Supported by the DfES and inspired by the early years' sector-endorsed foundation degree, the SEFDPW includes all the general requirements for foundation degrees, plus a distinctive playwork curriculum. This covers playwork theory, the play environment, playwork values and ethics, the role of the playworker, communication and inter-professional skills, management and development, child protection, inter-agency working, and children's rights and issues of equality and diversity.

Ms Taylor said, 'The distinctive features of foundation degrees are that they involve employers, they are accessible, they allow progression in work and academic study, they have flexible delivery methods and involve partnership working.'

Last month the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority approved the updated level 3 and new level 4 national occupational standards for the playwork sector (see Nursery World, 9 December). Ms Taylor said that while there are overlapping areas, the main difference between the S/NVQ in Playwork level 4 and the SEFDPW is that the latter allows people to 'stay in practice' and become senior practitioners, while the new S/NVQ level 4 in playwork has 'more of a focus on management'.

A briefing day will be held at SkillsActive on 19 January 2005 for universities and further education establishments that are interested in applying for pilot status for the SEFDPW. For more information contact paul.bonel@skillsactive.com or visit www.skillsactive.org.uk.