Education and Early Years T Level

This T Level focuses on children and young people and will help you develop the skills and essential knowledge needed for a range of careers.

This is a new two-year course that is designed in collaboration with employers to ensure that you have the knowledge and skills needed to meet the needs of industry or progress into higher education.

You’ll be able to put everything you learn in the classroom into practice. You’ll be given an amazing opportunity to work with an employer while you study, such as a school or nursery, and gain invaluable experience as well as key skills that employers are looking for.

T Levels are two-year, technical study programmes, designed with employers to give you the skills the industry needs. You take just one T Level which is equivalent to three A Levels.

Unlike A Levels, T Levels provide:

• technical knowledge and skills specific to your preferred career

• an industry placement of at least 45 days/750 hours

• maths, English, and digital skills

• common workplace skills

The course combines a mix of college-based study, training, and supported industry placements. The T level qualification is designed with occupational specialisms in mind, specific to education and early years.

On successful completion of this course you will be awarded: T Level Technical Qualification in Education and Early Years (Level 3)

What you'll learn

You will learn:

• The differences between a range of childcare and education provisions, 0 to 19 years

• How stakeholders can support children and young people with their education

• How metacognition supports children and young people to manage their own learning

• Why up-to-date and appropriate technology is important to effectively support children’s and young people’s educational development

• How legislation informs organisational policies and procedures for recording, storing, and sharing information on children’s/young people’s progress, needs, and welfare

• How the stages of children’s and young people’s social, emotional, and physical development may inform their behaviour.

• Understand the possible barriers to effective partnerships with parents, carers, and wider families

How you'll learn and be assessed

You will have a mix of formal assessments and exams:

• The Core part of the T Level qualification (Year 1) will be assessed through an external examination and a substantial Employer Set Project.

• Occupational Specialism (Year 2) will be assessed synoptically through rigorous practical assignments and observations in your placements.

Around 80% of your time will be spent in the classroom, learning the skills that employers need. The other 20% is a meaningful industry placement, where you’ll put these skills into practice. Industry placements in Education and Early Years settings are essential to the course and provide valuable links between theory and practice.

The purpose of these placements is two-fold:

• you gain practical, real-life experience of working in your desired profession and gain practical, hands-on knowledge to help you graduate from the programme

• you build relationships with potential colleagues and employers; it helps you get your foot in the door at your desired workplace

After successful completion of the Education and Early Years T Level, you will receive an overall grade of pass, merit, distinction, or distinction*. You will get a nationally recognised certificate which will show your overall grade and a breakdown of what you have achieved.

To help T Level students get into higher education, UCAS tariff points will be allocated to T Levels. UCAS points will only be allocated to the overall T Level grade. 

Progression

This qualification is equivalent to three A Levels and gives you a number of other benefits, including:

• a study programme, which has been co-designed with employers to give you the skills the industry needs

• on-the-job experience putting you in the best place possible to progress into work

• a variety of experiences so you can better identify the area in which you want to specialise

• you will graduate with the qualifications to progress to university, a higher-level apprenticeship, or employment

• an industry-developed curriculum that is practical, not theoretical

• a T Level qualification that will earn you the UCAS points needed for university entry

Successfully complete this course and you’ll have the UCAS Tariff points required to progress to higher education (degree-level) qualifications.

This qualification is also a licence to practise enabling you to pursue a career in early years, should you not wish to progress onto university.

Entry requirements

You need to have 5 GCSEs at grade 4 or above including Maths and a grade 5 in English language