Early Years Services
About early years qualifications
An early years qualification is a certification that shows you have the necessary training and skills to work with young children.
The early years stage in education covers the learning and development of children from birth to 5 years old.
Early years providers must follow regulations about staff:child ratios. These regulations make sure there are enough qualified staff to support children's development and keep them safe. These regulations are set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework (opens in a new tab).
Our services
Our Early Years Services are for anyone, with a qualification achieved outside of the UK, who wants to work in the early years sector in England.
Our evaluations team will review your case. When we have received all your documents, our evaluation team will compare the details of your qualifications against the criteria set by DfE.
Our Early Years Services are not for you if:
- your qualification is not related to the early years stages of education
- are not looking to work in the early years industry (you may need a Statement of Comparability instead)
- your qualification was achieved within the UK
If you hold an early years qualification achieved in the UK, please use the Check an early years qualification service (opens in a new tab).
Early years qualifications achieved in the UK
Ecctis is no longer advising on early years qualifications achieved within the UK.
For all enquiries, you should now use the Department for Education’s digital service, Check an early years qualification (opens in a new tab), to check the status of your qualification, and the staff:child ratios you can count within. This service helps early years managers, practitioners and entrants to the workforce to check the approval status of their prospective and existing qualifications.
Early years qualifications achieved outside the UK
Find out more about applying for an Early Years Statement for an international early years qualification.