FIELD EDUCATION
Review of Early Childhood Education and Care qualification
National Certificatein Early Childhood Education and Care (Parenting Education) (Level 3) [Ref: 0403]
The National Qualifications Services (NQS) of NZQA has completed the review of the qualification listed above that was registered in November 1997.
Date new version published December 2004
In November 2002, a steering group was convened with representatives of key stakeholder organisations, to be the New Zealand Qualifications Authority's principal adviser for the review of the Early Childhood Education and Care unit standards. The steering group recommended that a review be carried out on the remaining early childhood education and care unit standards following the deregistration of the Level 7 and 8 early childhood unit standards, to ensure that they were fit for purpose.
It was agreed that the review of unit standards in the lower levels (2 and 3) should be carried out first to enable the sector to test the process and to write exemplars of assessment resources to accompany some of the reviewed unit standards. These unit standards have now been registered as new versions, and the level 3 qualification has been reviewed to take into account the changes in the unit standards.
The review of the National Certificate in Early Childhood and Care (Parenting Education) (Level 3) was undertaken in April 2004 and has been through a consultation process with stakeholders. The review panel agreed that the focus of the qualification should be to give learners a basic introduction to the skills and knowledge involved in the education and care of infants, toddlers and young children within the sociocultural context of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Electives have been removed as basic principles of early childhood education and care apply across different settings.
Main changes resulting from the review
The focus of the qualification has moved from parenting education to early childhood education and care and the title has changed accordingly.
New Title:
National Certificatein Early Childhood Education and Care (Level 3) [Ref: 0403]
Changes to structure and content
· All unit standards in the qualification are now compulsory
· Purpose statement updated
· Total qualification credits increased from 55 to 63
· Unit standard 6632 has been substituted for unit standard 6630
· Unit standard 10015 - credits raised from 3 to 4
· Unit standard 10022 - credits raised from 1 to 2
· Unit standard 10018 raised from level 3 to level 4 and credits raised from 3 to 5
· Unit standards 7107, 9694, 10025, 10031, 10035, and 11101 have been deleted from the qualification
· Unit standard 10032 raised from level 2 to level 3 and credits raised from 1 to 3
· Unit standard 20406 added to the qualification.
Transition
People currently enrolled in programmes leading to the award of version 1 or 2 of this qualification may either complete the requirements for that version, or transfer their results to version 3.
Providers are encouraged to offer programmes based on version 3 from January 2005.
The last date for the award of versions 1 and 2 of this qualification will be December 2007.
It is the intention of the National Qualifications Services (NQS) that no person should be disadvantaged by these changes. Any person who believes they have been disadvantaged should contact NQS at:
National Qualifications Services
NZQA
PO Box 160
WELLINGTON
Telephone 04 802 3000