Early Years Education and Care: Early Years Practitioner Status (Full-time) (BA Hons)

A typical offer for this course is 88-104 UCAS points.

All applicants will be required to provide a satisfactorily enhanced disclosure document from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

This degree is ideal for school-leavers studying a range of courses including A-Level, BTEC, CACHE and Welsh Baccalaureate. These course subjects can be linked to child development and care; however, the degree is also appropriate for those with no specific childcare qualifications and who have studied subjects including language, arts, music, drama, mathematics, sciences or humanities.

Early Years encourages and values applications from students who are returning to education.

As part of the application process, students will be given an opportunity to attend visit days. This provides applicants with an opportunity to visit the campus, meet the lecturers, ask questions about the degree and have a tour of the site with a current student.

During visit days the course lecturers are always interested in the applicant’s experiences of volunteering and working with young children, for example, school/college placements. The team also likes to hear about applicants’ interests, hobbies, and responsibilities.

To gain graduate practitioner competences a C level GCSE Mathematics and English or other suitable equivalent literacy and numeracy qualifications may also be required.

All our programmes are assessed by 100% coursework. There are no exams.

We have found that using a varied range of assessment methods increases employability skills. Employers seek graduates who are problem-solvers and who have a range of transferable employability skills.

Assessment provides opportunities to develop skills such as the ability to work in a team, have effective oral and written communication while using a range of information-sharing methods, including briefing papers, academic posters, group debates and professional discussions.

There are also opportunities for practical work experiences, supporting employability, professional development and careers.

Bilingual and Welsh-medium study is at the heart of our provision; you can choose to enrol on the Welsh-medium or English-medium programme and present your assignments in either language.

Students are required to apply for, and obtain, a UWTSD Enhanced Disclosure Barring Check (DBS). The fee for this is dependent on the DBS and is approximately £44.

Students are required to gain the equivalent of 700 hours’ practical experience in places such as early years settings. This will incur travelling costs and refreshment costs. (Only applies to Early Years Practitioner Status programmes.)

Students may incur additional costs as they are required to attend some module lectures with appropriate clothing for study outdoors.

Mandatory study experiences and enhancement activities are organised for students studying Early Years. The cost of travelling and the study on offer is covered by the Early Years discipline. However, students would need to supply their own refreshments for some visits.

Additionally, Early Years organises optional opportunities for students to gain additional qualifications during the latter part of their programme, for example, Health and Safety, Safeguarding. These incur costs for the students; the cost is determined by the provider.

The School of Early Years also offers students optional opportunities to partake in visits beyond the campus, for example, Cardiff, London, Sweden and Canada. The costs of these optional visits are incurred by the students.

You may be eligible for funding to help support your study. To find out about scholarships, bursaries and other funding opportunities that are available, please visit our Bursaries and Scholarships section.

Graduates go on to careers in a variety of fields including:

• Additional learning needs support
• Afterschool Leader
• Childminder
• Children’s Charity Roles (e.g. Barnardo’s)
• Community Support Officer
• Family Facilitator
• Family Support Officer
• Parenting Officer
• Pastoral Support
• Play Workers
• Room Leaders
• Setting Managers
• Youth Workers

Further Study

Some of our graduates progress to other further studies. Some students have progressed on to our own MA programmes, including our MA Early Literacy and MA Early Years Education and Care.

Postgraduate programmes such as these offer opportunities for students to up-skill and deepen their understanding of young children and their families. Such studies have enabled postgraduate students to progress in their existing field of work and for others to move to new careers.

Route into teaching

As a UWTSD Early Years student, you will be guaranteed an interview for the PGCE Primary programme, subject to meeting entry qualification requirements. When applying for the PGCE Primary programme we, in conjunction with Initial Teacher Education, will support you through a mock application and interview process.

Postgraduate Study and Alternative Routes

Graduates will also be able to progress on to a number of postgraduate courses in their area of interest, a good degree classification in Early Years Education and Care meet the entry requirements for many postgraduate routes.

Below are a few examples of routes previous graduates have taken:

• Family and Communities
• Nursing
• Play Therapy
• Policy and Government
• Research
• Social Work
• Speech and Language Therapy