Mandatory Units

Unit 201: Exploring roles and development opportunities in early years settings

• Understand own role and development opportunities in early years settings
• Be able to reflect on personal development in early years settings

Unit 202: Child development from birth to 7 years

• Understand principles of child development and learning
• Be able to support babies and young children with transitions
• Understand how to support positive behaviour in early years settings

Unit 203: Safeguarding babies and young children in early years settings

• Understand safeguarding relating to early years settings

Unit 204: Supporting health and safety in early years settings

• Understand health and safety relating to early years settings
• Be able to follow health and safety procedures in early years settings

Unit 205: Promoting wellbeing in early years settings

• Understand principles of wellbeing relating to babies and young children in early years settings
• Be able to support wellbeing for babies and/or young children in early years settings

Unit 206: Supporting effective communication in early years settings

• Understand communication needs
• Be able to communicate effectively in early years settings

Unit 207: Supporting activities, purposeful play and educational programmes

• Understand how to support the planning of activities and assessment in early years settings
• Be able to demonstrate inclusive practice in supporting play and the delivery of activities in early years settings

Unit 208: Understand how to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities

• Understand support required by babies/children with special educational needs and/or disabilities

Unit 209: Working with parents, colleagues and other professionals in early years settings

• Understand how to work with others in early years settings
• Be able to develop positive working relationships with parents and other professionals in early years settings
• Understand how partnership working contributes to children’s wellbeing during transition to school

To achieve the Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner (England), candidates must achieve 9 mandatory units shown above.

Course Enrolment

After your purchase, you will receive login information to begin your online course registration. Once logged in to your account, you will complete a quick 10-step enrolment progress consisting of initial assessments, skill checks and a telephone induction before you are allocated an assessor to begin your course.

Starting the course

Your assessor will issue you with your first assessment plan, detailing the units and criteria that you need to complete, which format to complete them in and where to find additional information if needed. You can find your assessment plan, progress bar and all the work you need to complete quickly and easily from your course dashboard.

Submitting Work

When you have completed a written assignment, you can upload your written work to your online course within just 2 clicks from logging on to your online account. Your assessor will mark your work and give you feedback which will be displayed on your course page and emailed to you for ease of reference

Getting Help

Getting Help From time to time, you might need a little bit of help, which is why we have a ‘live chat’ button on your learning portal for you to use at any time between 9 am and 6 pm Mon - Fri. You also have a messaging button that can be accessed from your dashboard to quickly message your assessor, IQA or administration staff.

On completion

Once you have completed your course, your assessor will need to finalise your course work before sending it to our IQA, this usually takes a week or two as they may need to revisit all the work you have completed. The IQA will sample your work once the assessor submits it to them, and from that point, your certificate should be claimed within 2-4 weeks.

Level 2

For anyone who has a level 2 early years qualification that they attained after 1st September 2019, provided that this meets the level 2 relevant and full criteria, they can be counted towards the staff to child ratio at level 2.

Level 3

For a staff member who has a level 3 qualification from 1st September 2014, provided they meet the full level 3 relevant criteria, they can also be counted towards the EYFS staff to child ratio at level 3.

Higher levels

For those staff members who have a qualification in early years at the level of four or five (completed as part of a level 6 course) if that four or five level qualification is not listed as meeting the relevant and full criteria, they will not be able to be part of the EYFS staff to child ratio at level 3.

The DfE has a list of qualifications which meet their criteria allowing the holder of that qualification to count as part of the staff to child ratio according to the regulations set down by the EYFS. If you are not sure whether your qualification qualifies you to work in the early years setting then you can check this early years qualification list:

early years qualifications list

Approximately 15 minutes after purchase, you will receive your login details (Please check Spam folder) by email, including a link and instructions to log into your course. You can also find your learning portal by clicking on the ‘student login’ button on our website or by clicking here; lms.thelearningstation.co.uk. 

You will get a call to arrange your induction within days of completing the enrolment process. the induction will go through your chosen course, advise on suitability, Help you choose your optional units, and pathways, explain what is expected from your work, provide training on the use of our system and answer any questions that you have. The Induction will take place over the phone.

You can expect any work submitted to be marked within 14 days marking and feedback may take longer if you submit more than 3 assignments in a month.

All our courses are delivered online so no Classroom learning, We have some learning resources but as our qualifications are vocational and work-based courses, you are expected to conduct research and gain skills, knowledge and understanding from your working environment. Your assessor will provide you with assessment plans, which may include guidance and materials, as well as provide constructive feedback on the work that you complete.

Your assessor will provide you with assessment plans with work to complete, as well as their contact information. They will not reach out to you if you are not doing your work, you need to get in touch if you are having trouble with your assignments.

Your assessor should respond to any messages from you within just 3-working days, but it is usually sooner. If you have sent your assessor a message and you haven’t heard back from them, please let us know by

This qualification requires an assessment of both competence and knowledge. Throughout your City and Guilds Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner (Early Years Educator) course, you will be assessed through a variety of methods:

• Written assignments and coursework

• Having a manager or colleague complete a witness testimony of tasks completed in a workplace

• Direct observations of you carrying out work-related tasks

• Professional discussions over the phone

• Supplying us with work product evidence.

On completion of your course, there are steps that we must take to quality assure your qualification to then send to the awarding organisation.

1. The Assessor must review your work in full before submitting it to our IQA, this usually takes around 2 weeks.
2. The IQA will review any requests within 1-months, but this is usually sooner. If there are actions on your portfolio it will be sent to the assessor for them to complete, and then these steps will be repeated.
3. Once the IQA has quality checked and approved your portfolio for external sampling by the awarding body, the office will submit the claim for your certificate within 5 working days.
4. The awarding body will usually issue a certificate within 2-weeks from this point; however, they may request sampling of your work, in which case it can be up to one month.

The usual duration is 1-2 months from completion.