NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) Assessment 2026

NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma For Working In The Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) QN: 610/4164/6

Qualification Summary  

Section 1: Introduction

If you are using this Qualification Specification for planning purposes, please make sure that you are using the most recent version.

Aims And Objectives

The aim of this qualification is to prepare learners to become early years educators, enabling them to work with children from birth to five years and gain knowledge of children aged five to seven years.

Upon achievement of this qualification, it is intended that learners will be able to enter the workforce as early years educators.

In response to the Department for Education (DfE), we have built a qualification to meet the criteria required for those wishing to become early years educators.  

We have surpassed the minimum requirements set out in the ‘full and relevant criteria’ to develop a qualification which reflects the priorities of educators and employers to meet the needs of babies and children.

This qualification aims to:

• focus on the study of early years education
• offer breadth and depth of study, incorporating a key core of knowledge
• provide opportunities to acquire a number of practical and technical skills

The objectives of this qualification are to:

• confirm occupational competence and/or ‘licence to practice’
• confirm competence in an occupational role to the standard required

Support Handbook

This Qualification Specification must be used alongside the mandatory Support Handbook, which can be found on the NCFE website. This contains additional supporting information to help with planning, delivery and assessment.

This Qualification Specification contains all the qualification-specific information you will need that is not covered in the Support Handbook.

Guidance For Entry And Registration 

This qualification is designed for learners preparing to become early years educators, enabling them to work with children from birth to five years and gain knowledge of children aged five to seven years. Learners must be at least 16 years old. We do not set any other entry requirements, but centres may have their own guidelines.

It may also be useful to learners studying qualifications in the following sector:

early years and childcare
Registration is at the discretion of the centre in accordance with equality legislation and should be made on the Portal.

There are no specific prior skills or knowledge a learner must have for this qualification. However, learners may find it helpful if they have already achieved the NCFE CACHE Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner 603/3723/0, or a previous level 2 qualification that is full and relevant or holds transferable skills which will prepare learners to study at level 3.

Centres are responsible for ensuring that all learners are capable of achieving the learning outcomes (LOs) and complying with the relevant literacy, numeracy and health and safety requirements.

Learners registered on this qualification should not undertake another qualification at the same level, or with the same/a similar title, as duplication of learning may affect funding eligibility.

Early Years Educator: GCSE English And Mathematics Requirement 

The requirement for level 3 early years educators (EYE) to hold GCSE or Functional Skills in mathematics at Level 2 has been removed from ratio requirements in the early years workforce. Learners will still need to hold a suitable level 2 English qualification in order to count within the staff to child ratios at level 3. In addition, from January 2024, a manager or a learner that starts in a manager role will also need to hold a suitable level 2 maths qualification. International qualifications can be checked in liaison with the DfE.

Achieving This Qualification

To be awarded this qualification, learners are required to successfully achieve 10 mandatory units/95 credits.

Please refer to the list of units in appendix A or the unit summaries in section 2 for further information.

To achieve this qualification, learners must successfully demonstrate their achievement of all LOs of the units detailed in this Qualification Specification. A partial certificate may be requested for learners who do not achieve the full qualification but have achieved at least one whole unit; partial achievement certificate fees can be found in the fees and pricing document on the NCFE website.

Delivery And Guided Learning Hours (GLH)

The NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) (610/4164/6) has been arranged to combine practical skills supervision as part of the guided learning hours. This appears as a larger total than the previous qualification (NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Workforce (Early Years Educator) (601/2629/2)) which kept these two components separate. Please be assured that models of delivery and duration of study programmes that you have followed for the previous qualification can be maintained moving forward. The newly revised DfE Early Years Educator criteria have also contributed to an increase in skills-based competencies and these too attribute to the size of the qualification.     

Progression 

Learners who achieve this qualification could progress to the following:

employment:

• educator in day nurseries o educator in nursery schools
• educator in reception classes in primary schools o pre-school worker

further education:

• NCFE CACHE Level 5 Diploma for the Early Years Senior Practitioner (610/4163/4)
• higher education – personal statements may be accepted by universities

Progression To Higher Level Studies  

Level 3 qualifications can support progression to higher level study, which requires knowledge and skills different from those gained at levels 1 and 2. Level 3 qualifications enable learners to:

• apply factual, procedural and theoretical subject knowledge
• use relevant knowledge and methods to address complex, non-routine problems
• interpret and evaluate relevant information and ideas
• understand the nature of the area of study or work
• demonstrate an awareness of different perspectives and approaches
• identify, select and use appropriate cognitive and practical skills
• use appropriate research to inform actions
• review and evaluate the effectiveness of their own methods

Staffing Requirements 

Assessment decisions for knowledge-based learning outcomes (LOs) must be made by an occupationally knowledgeable member of staff, qualified to make assessment decisions. The centre with whom the learners are registered will be responsible for making all assessment decisions.

Occupationally competent and qualified assessors from the centre must use direct observation to assess practical skills-based outcomes.

Please see the assessment principles for early years educator (EYE) qualifications in this specification for further information on staffing requirements.

Resource Requirements 

There are no mandatory resource requirements for this qualification, but centres must ensure learners have access to suitable resources to enable them to cover all the appropriate LOs.

Real Work Environment (RWE) Requirement/Recommendation

Where the assessment requirements for a unit allows, it is essential that organisations wishing to operate a real work environment (RWE) do so in an environment that reflects a real work setting and replicates the key characteristics of the workplace in which the skill to be assessed is normally employed. This is often used to support simulation.

Work/Industry Placement Experience

This qualification requires learners to complete a mandatory work/industry placement experience throughout the duration of the qualification, before certification.

Placements must be chosen carefully and all necessary risk assessments undertaken, giving attention to:

• location
• accessibility
• suitability

Wherever possible learner placements will be at centres with a good or outstanding Ofsted rating. Those accessing placements that require improvement would benefit from wider experience during their training, if possible.

Observations of learners on placement should provide holistic evidence in line with requirements and be undertaken throughout the qualification journey and feedback offered to students for reflection and improved practice.

Placement In A Real Work Environment (RWE)

The minimum placement hours for this qualification are 300 hours, however it is recommended that learners undertake 350 hours where possible.

Age Ranges Covered By The Qualification 

This qualification prepares learners to work with children between birth and five years with knowledge of children up to seven years. 

How The Qualification Is Assessed 

Assessment is the process of measuring a learner’s skill, knowledge and understanding against the standards set in a qualification.

This qualification is internally assessed and externally quality assured.

The assessment consists of one component:

• an internally assessed contextualised portfolio of evidence, which is assessed by centre staff and externally quality assured by NCFE (internal quality assurance must still be completed by the centre as usual)
• Learners must be successful in this component to gain the NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) (610/4164/6).

This qualification includes both knowledge and skills that meet the Department for Education Early Years Educator (DfE EYE) criteria in full and map to the knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) within the Early Years Educator apprenticeship standard ST0135.

The assessment methods for the skills-based criteria should include:

• Direct Observation Of Learner In Work Placement/Employment (It Is Essential To Include Observations)
• Professional Discussions
• Reflective Accounts

expert witness testimonies from lead practitioner and accompanied by professional discussion (where required) to triangulate the evidence (only to be used when observation would not be appropriate)
work products, for example, policies, reports and records that can be used to underpin or move a professional discussion forward
Skills-based outcomes must be achieved in a RWE and in accordance with assessment principles, they are typically achieved throughout the duration of the programme of study to allow for increasing confidence and competence in practice.

All 10 units are mandatory to achieve this qualification.

The NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) (610/4164/6) is a competence-based qualification (CBQ).

A CBQ may be based on an occupational standard as identified in the qualification summary table at the beginning of this specification. A CBQ must be assessed in the workplace or in a RWE in accordance with the relevant assessment guidance. For further information on the guidance, please visit the qualification’s page on the NCFE website.

Learners who are not successful can resubmit work within the registration period; however, a charge may apply in cases where additional external quality assurance visits are required.

All the evidence generated by the learner will be assessed against the standards expected of a level 3 learner for each LO.

Unless otherwise stated in this specification, all learners taking this qualification must be assessed in English and all assessment evidence presented for external quality assurance must be in English.

Internal Assessment

We have created some sample tasks for the internally assessed 10 units, which can be found within a separate document in the member’s area of our website. These tasks are not mandatory. You can contextualise these tasks to suit the needs of your learners to help them build up their portfolio of evidence. The tasks have been designed to cover some knowledge learning outcomes (LOs) for all units and provide opportunities for stretch and challenge. For further information about contextualising the tasks, please contact the Provider Development team.

Each learner must create a portfolio of evidence generated from appropriate assessment tasks to demonstrate achievement of all the LOs associated with each unit. The assessment tasks should allow the learner to respond to a real-life situation that they may face when in employment. On completion of each unit, learners must declare that the work produced is their own and the assessor must countersign this.

If a centre needs to create their own internal assessment tasks, there are four essential elements in the production of successful centre-based assessment tasks; these are:

• ensuring the assessment tasks are meaningful with clear, assessable outcomes
• appropriate coverage of the content, LOs, or assessment criteria (AC)
• having a valid and engaging context or scenario
• including sufficient opportunities for stretch and challenge for higher attainers
• Please see the guidance document for creation of internal assessment tasks on our website.

Mapping To The Department For Education (DfE) Early Years Educator (EYE) Qualification Criteria 

It is the role of the DfE to define the content of the level 3 qualifications that practitioners must hold to be included in the ratios specified in the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework.

The DfE does this by defining criteria that qualifications must meet to enable practitioners to demonstrate their competence.

The qualification criteria lay out the minimum requirements for what an early years educator should know, understand and be able to do to be considered qualified to support babies and children from birth to age five in the early years foundation stage (EYFS).

Section 2: Unit Content And Assessment Guidance

This section provides details of the structure and content of this qualification.

The types of evidence listed are for guidance purposes only. Within learners’ portfolios, other types of evidence are acceptable if all learning outcomes (LOs) are covered, and if the evidence generated can be internally and externally quality assured. For approval of methods of internal assessment other than portfolio building, please contact your external quality assurer (EQA).

The explanation of terms explains how the terms used in the unit content are applied to this qualification. This can be found in section 3.