Playwork qualifications

Working with children and young people is now a serious career option and there are many opportunities to become properly qualified to find out more about the different qualifications available for working with children click here you can also find out about the various progression pathways in playwork by clicking here.

New Playwork Qualifications at Level 2, comprising Playwork Units with Common Content

A new short term steering group has been formed with Awarding Bodies, playwork sector colleagues, representatives from the 4 Nations supported by officers from SkillsActive technical team. The key task of the Playwork Common Units Steering Group is to lead on the development of a set of units with common content for the playwork sector. For more background information click here

To access the latest update of the playwork units with common content click here

To find our how the units will make up an award, certificate and diploma click here

Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) level 3 Diploma for the Children’s Workforce

We are aware that Skills for Care and Development, with the help of CWDC, is developing a level 3 Diploma for work with children and young people.  The qualification will incorporate units based on the Common Core for England as well as specialist pathways for those sectors in the CWDC footprint such as early years, learning mentors and social care. 

This qualification, which does not have the staged approach of Award and Certificate, is intended to be the starting point for other sector skills councils in the children and young people’s workforce to build their own specialist pathways which can be added to the core units, and thereby support transfer across roles from sector to sector. 

SkillsActive will be considering the best way of contributing to this development in the future, but would like to reassure employers, Playworkers, potential learners and training providers that this will not replace the playwork qualification as the relevant qualification for work in our sector. There is a suggestion that this level 3 Diploma would act as a complementary qualification for those wishing to undertake two or more roles in the children’s workforce or for those wishing to move to another sector, and this will need to be explored in the coming months.

Qualifying the Playwork Workforce

The Children’s Plan included a commitment that “….the play strategy will support individuals in communities to take a professional role by providing funding to enable 4000 playworkers to achieve recognised play qualifications, and within that to enable a core of professionally qualified new graduate leaders to emerge.”

In support of this commitment, a range of initiatives is being developed by the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC), in partnership with SkillsActive. Click here to find out more about these initiatives, including funding that is available for candidates to undertake a full level 3 qualification.

Frequently Asked Questions relating to the Level 3 awards in Playwork for Early Years and Child Care Workers and Early Years and Child Care for Playworkers can be found here.

Integrated Qualifications Framework

As a result of the Laming Report into the death of Victoria Climbié, there is Government commitment to ensuring that agencies and individuals who work with children and young people do so in a collaborative and co-operative way. A key action to support this is the development and implementation of an Integrated Qualifications Framework (IQF) on which appropriate qualifications for members of the children’s workforce will be placed.

Click here for more information on the IQF.

Pathways to Playwork

Pathways to Playwork is a FREE on-line interactive tool which provides access to our sector approved qualifications and endorsed playwork training courses provided by our Quality Assured Training Provision for the play workforce. Click here to find out more.