HIGHER APPRENTICESHIP
Leadership and Management
(Children’s Care, Play, Learning and Development)
Level 5 Apprenticeship
CCPLD Leadership and Management
The Level 5 Leadership and Management of Children’s Care Play Learning and Development qualification will enable learners to develop and demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, behaviours, skills and practice within a children’s care play, learning, and development care setting.
Contents
Apprenticeship Framework
Level 4 Preparing for Leadership and Management in CCPLD/ Level 5 CCPLD
Leadership and Management
Essential Skills Qualifications
Welsh Language Development
Apprenticeship Framework
This qualification is for those in a leadership or management role within the Early Years sector. This qualification is practice-based and assesses learners’ knowledge and practice. It is designed for learners in work-based learning.
The programme prepares learners for roles such as:
• Setting Manager
• Deputy Manager
Who is this apprenticeship for?
The qualification will assess learners’ knowledge and practice through their work.
Learners are required to complete the Level 4 Preparing for Leadership and Management in CCPLD as part of the Level 5 framework.
Overview
The Level 4 Preparing for Leadership and Management CCPLD is completed in the first 12 months, and learners will continue onto the Level 5 Leadership and Management for the remainder of time on programme. This is a framework and cannot be completed as a stand-alone qualification.
The Level 5 Leadership and Management in Children’s Care, Play, Learning and Development: Practice, will enable learners to develop and demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding within a children’s care, play, learning and development setting. In particular, learners will be able to demonstrate that they:
• Understand and apply in practice a range of leadership and management concepts theories and techniques
• Reflect on their own and other’s knowledge, leadership and management styles and understand how these impact on those they work with, both within and outside of their setting
• Lead and manage performance improvement in children’s care, play, learning and development settings
• Lead and manage child-centred approaches in practice
• Lead and manage the improvement of service within children’s care, play, learning and development
• Work as effective and independent learners, and as critical and reflective thinkers to make informed judgements which includes using and interpreting data
• Use communication, numeracy and digital competency skills as appropriate within their role
On completion of this apprenticeship you will achieve the following:
• Apprenticeship Level 4 Preparing for Leadership and Management
• Apprenticeship Level 5 CCPLD Leadership and Management
• Essential Skills in Application of Number, Communications and Digital Literacy
• Prentis-iaith Welsh Language Development
Level 5 CCPLD Leadership and Management
This is the qualification you will be completing alongside your employment within an Early Years setting.
Length of time to complete
We will tailor your learning programmes to suit your needs, so that each learner’s experience is unique. While learner’s needs will be different, the recommended time to complete this programme is 24 months (12 months each for both the Level 4 and Level 5 qualifications).
Course Delivery
This qualification is run in cohorts, which start in March, June, September and December each year.
The Preparing for Leadership and Management level 4 programme will primarily be delivered through mandatory workshops, 1-to-1 sessions with a member of the ACT delivery team, using a mixture of face-to-face and remote learning sessions. An ACT assessor will meet with the learner, either in the workplace or through digital means (for example, Microsoft Teams) once a month for approximately 2 hours to support progress.
Learners and employers are given dates to workshops at the start of the qualification and workshops are mandatory for all learners. There are nine workshops throughout the duration of the Level 4 qualification, split into three blocks.
Block 1: 4 sessions which are typically run during months 2-4*
Block 2: 2 sessions in month 8
Block 3: 3 sessions typically in months 10-11.
*This may vary depending on specific months, bank holidays and cohort start dates.
Learners will also be set tasks to complete between each visit, for approximately 4 hours per month with the expectation of independent study and research (please note – this is just a guide and will vary based on learner needs).
Examples of some of the tasks that might be set by our assessors include:
• Research legislation relating to children’s Rights
• Evaluate the role of current practices
• Analyse legislation linked to Safeguarding within your setting
• Evaluate team performance against relevant theory
• Business project (Level 5 only)
All assessments are pass/fail, some of which are externally marked.
The use of Office 365 and related tools will be essential to the course. With participants being set tasks which will allow them to practice and demonstrate their learnt skills in the workplace. The use of a computer/tablet is required to complete formal assessments as these need to be word-processed.
What you will learn
(Please note that this section is split into 2 sections to give an overview of the Level 4 and Level 5 qualifications)
Level 4 Preparing for Leadership and Management in CCPLD
The Level 4 qualification will enable learners to develop and demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding in the context of CCPLD settings. In particular, learners will be able to demonstrate that they:
• Understand a range of leadership and management concepts, theories and techniques
• Understand different leadership and management styles and how these influence practice within services
• Understand how to lead child-centred approaches in practice
• Are able to work as effective and independent learners, and as critical and reflective thinkers to make informed judgements which includes using and interpreting data
• Have an awareness of how to lead, manage and improve service within children’s care, play, learning and development
• Use literacy, numeracy and digital competency skills as appropriate within their role.
To achieve the Level 4 Preparing for Leadership and Management in Children’s Care, Play, Learning and Development qualification, learners must achieve a minimum of 60 credits in total.
Mandatory Units
• Leading child-centred practice
• Theoretical frameworks for leadership and management
• Understand how to lead and manage effective team performance
The minimum guided learning hour for this qualification is 335 hours.
Level 5 CCPLD Leadership and Management
The Level 5 qualification is assessed through a business project, alongside this a portfolio of evidence that will be used to gather assessment evidence for learning outcomes where opportunities in practice may not be presented through the business project. The level 5 is assessed externally via City and Guilds, however the internal assessor will facilitate and guide all assessments.
This will include areas from the mandatory and the optional units (below). A business project will be used to gather assessment evidence for the majority of the mandatory content, as well as the optional units where achievable. It is important to note that the project must focus on an area that is carried out in real-time and not one that has already begun.
The project will require candidates to:
• Identify an opportunity for implementing a new or revised provision/initiative within the workplace/setting
• Develop a project plan for implementing a new or revised provision/initiative within the workplace/setting
• Implement the new or revised provision/initiative
• Evaluate the outcome of the implementation.
The assessment approach will be finalised by the candidate delivering a final evaluation of their activities through a professional discussion held with an external assessor. To achieve the Level 5 Leadership and Management in Children’s Care, Play, Learning and Development qualification learners must achieve a minimum of 120 credits in total. 90 credits must be achieved from the Mandatory group A minimum of 30 credits must be achieved from the Optional group.
Mandatory Units – Group A (20 credits must be achieved from this group)
• Lead and manage child-centred practice
• Lead and manage health, safety and security in the workplace/setting
• Lead and manage practice that promotes safeguarding of children
• Lead and manage effective team performance
• Lead and manage the quality of workplace/setting
• Professional practice
The minimum guided learning hour requirement for this qualification is 415 hours.
*Learners must also complete a selection of optional units that are relevant to their role and to the children that they care for within their organisation/setting.
Have any questions about our Level 5 CCPLD Leadership and Management?
We are here to help. If you have any further questions or enquiries about the main qualification element of the programme, please contact our Route Manager:
Helen Clarke
Route Manager for CCPLD, CYP & PW helenclarke@acttraining.org.uk
Essential Skills Qualifications
When you agree to undertake an apprenticeship, you may be required to complete Essential Skills as part of your apprenticeship framework.
What are Essential Skills?
The Essential Skills Wales (ESW) will be initially assessed via an online Wales Essential Skills Toolkit (WEST) Assessment. If a Learner already holds an ESW certificate or equivalent qualification this can provide a proxy and learners will not need to complete that ESW element of the programme. Where a Learner is not exempt an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) will be generated from the initial WEST assessment. The modules delivery will include independent learning via WEST, prior to guided learning sessions preparing the Learner for their assessment. ESWs are assessed via controlled tasks and confirmatory tests for Communication and Application of Number, Digital Literacy is assessed via a controlled task and structured discussion.
Proxy
If you already hold qualifications, these may be used as ‘proxy’ towards your apprenticeship framework. As a result, you will be exempt from achieving that particular Essential Skill, if you wish. This will be discussed with you before you sign up. Below are some examples, although this list is not exhaustive.
Welsh Language Development
As part of your Welsh Government funded framework, you will be supported to develop and maintain your Welsh language skills for the workplace.
What is Welsh Language Development?
ACT are committed to playing their part in the Welsh Government Million Speakers strategy. All learners will complete the Prentis-iaith Welsh Language Development course as part of your framework with us.
Don’t panic – this is as a means of development and is aimed to support you with the development of your Welsh Language skills. This course is specially designed to give apprentices a basic knowledge of Welsh for the workplace and consists of 6 interactive modules to complete online. The course will be completed throughout your framework, with support from your assessor.
Already bilingual?
If you are Welsh speaking you will undertake your learning bilingually. In practice this means that you can choose the elements of your learning that you would like to complete through the medium of Welsh. You will be able to discuss your particular preferences with your assessor.