There are various pathways to join us for English Speaking roles (please note we have different requirements for French and Mandarin language speakers who join our team).

For you to be considered for an English-speaking role with us your qualification needs to be recognised by the Department for Education.

There is a different page for information about qualifications from overseas.

English Speaking Key Person

Level 3 Early Years Educator

The most usual qualification we require is the NVQ Level 3 Early Years Educator. This course normally takes 18 months and must include an element of assessed performance in an early years setting (e.g. in a nursery, so it is not possible to do a level 3 qualification which is completely online. The study part can be online, but there must be an assessed placement in a UK nursery.)

This qualification must be a “Full and Relevant qualifications accepted by the Department for Education (DfE) to work in an early years setting”. Not all Level 3 qualifications meet this “full and relevant” requirement. So before starting a course like this, please really check with the provider that it is “full and relevant” and that you can “count in the ratio in a nursery”.

It is possible to study this Level 3 Early Years Educator as an apprentice which covers the cost of the qualification. We currently do not offer apprenticeships in level 3 qualifications. Let us know when you qualify, and we can discuss what roles we have available.

Level 3 & Level 4 Montessori

We also hire Montessori Teachers. However, even though there is an International Montessori Diploma, if these are studied overseas, they will not be considered “Full and Relevant” in the UK.

In the UK there are several training providers of the Montessori Diploma, but unless you already have a Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification which is considered “Full and Relevant”, then ensure your Montessori Course will include a level 3 Early Years qualification which is Full and Relevant.

This tends to be a longer and more expensive course, but is highly regarded. Within the Montessori world, there is AMI (which tends to have a more rigid approach) and other providers such as MCI, MMI, and others (which can have a more flexible approach). We are more likely to hire someone who has a more flexible approach.

BA Level 6
Some, but not all, Degrees in Early Years Childhood Studies are considered “Full and Relevant”. For it to count, the course must :

• be consistent with the QAA benchmark for Early Childhood Studies (which the university can confirm)
  
  
• now have an element of assessed performance in an early years setting

If you have a degree in Education that does not have “Early Years” in the title, it will not count.

Overseas qualifications rarely qualify, but we can provide you with more information.

QTS & EYTS

Qualified Teacher Status & Early Years Teacher Status

These two qualifications also count as a Level 6, and are both considered full and relevant.

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Please see the following pages for more information about:

Does my existing UK qualification count?
https://careers.lpe.uk/pages/does-my-existing-qualification-countqualification-count

Recognising overseas qualifications: https://careers.lpe.uk/pages/overseas-qualifications

Studying a new UK qualification
https://careers.lpe.uk/pages/uk-qualifications

For more information about visa sponsorship, please see this page:
https://careers.lpe.uk/pages/visa

For more about us, please visit:
https://careers.lpe.uk/

Please see our jobs listings here:
https://careers.lpe.uk/jobs