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Early years teachers are specialists in early childhood development and work with children up to the age of 5.
You could work: between 8am and 6pm; on a rota
In this role you would:
You may need to wear a uniform.
You could work in a nursery or at a school.
Your working environment may be physically and emotionally demanding.
You can get into this job through:
You'll need to get early years teacher status (EYTS) and meet the teacher's standards by completing an early years initial teacher training course. There are several ways to do this:
You can also have your teaching skills assessed over 3 months to make sure you meet the teacher's standards. For this route, you must be a graduate with a lot of experience across the 0 to 5 age range, and knowledge of key stage 1 and 2 in schools.
Early years teacher status qualifies you to teach children up to age 5. If you want to teach older children, or teach in a primary school, you'll usually need to get qualified teacher status (QTS).
You'll usually need:
You could work your way into this role by starting as nursery worker or teaching assistant and doing a part-time degree in childhood studies or child development.
You'll usually need experience of working with children and young people through paid work or volunteering at a school, through youth work or on a holiday scheme.
You'll need to:
You can search for jobs in schools through the Teaching Vacancies service.
You can find out more about teaching in early years from Get Into Teaching.
You can also get details through CACHE and the early years career progression map.
Once qualified, you could move into management of a nursery or group of nurseries.
You could work as a supply teacher or take further training to become a primary school teacher or play therapist. You might also move into teaching early years courses at university.