About the Early Years Professional Development Programme
About the Early Years Professional Development Programme
The Early Years Professional Development Programme is funded by the Department for Education (including funding available for practitioners’ time to take part). Pre-reception practitioners from schools and private, voluntary and independent settings (PVI), as well as childminders are eligible, with priority given to applications from Settings that meet certain criteria.
The programme offers specific in-depth training for up to 10,000 early years professionals from all participating Local Authorities in England over a 2 year period. There will be staggered start dates across the 2023\24 period with a total of four cohorts, the final of which started April 2024. The EYPDP offers a comprehensive package of professional development that is based on current early years pedagogy. It is helping to build upon practitioners’ skills and knowledge in improving the quality of adult-child interactions.
What is the training programme’s purpose?
The programme provides support for practitioners to:
Improve skills to identify children at risk of speech, language and communication needs.
Provide an understanding of the theory of child development in early mathematics.
Develop skills to support children’s self-confidence, relationships, and self-awareness through expertly developed Personal, Social and Emotional Development training.
Improve engagement with parents and carers to support the home learning environment.
The EYPDP welcomed its fourth and final cohort of practitioners in April 2024. We are no longer accepting expressions of interest, but if you would like to learn more about the programme or have any questions, please email: eypdpsupport@edt.org
What does the programme entail?
The programme consists of online self-study eLearning and regular facilitated webinars in which practitioners meet with their tutor and other early years professionals on a weekly basis. In total, the programme takes around 8 months and 60 hours to complete.
The training is broken down into three modules with content developed by industry experts in Communication and Language, Early Mathematics and Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED).
Consisting of 7 units:
- Understanding typical language development
- Creating communication supportive environments
- Achieving high quality interaction
- Measuring progress, identifying needs
- How language supports behaviour and wellbeing
- Building partnerships with parents
- Embedding good communication and language in your setting
For each unit EYPs will complete
2hrs online self-study
A total of seven 1.5hr facilitated weekly webinars for the Communication and Language module
Consisting of 6 units:
- Counting
- Cardinality
- Measurement
- Pattern
- Shape
- Space
For each unit EYPs will complete
- 1.5hrs online self-study
- A total of three 1.5hr facilitated weekly webinars for the Early Mathematics module
Consisting of 5 units:
- Understanding PSED of children aged 2-4 years
- Helping children manage emotions and relationships
- Helping children process trauma, loss and disruption
- Understanding good practice in engaging with parents
- Staff wellbeing
For each unit EYPs will complete
- 2hrs online self-study
- A total of five 1.5hr facilitated weekly webinars for the PSED module
At the end of each module, the Early Years Practitioner receives mentoring support from their Programme Trainer and participates in an online webinar to discuss how they will implement and embed what they have learnt.
A total of 4.5 hours will be spent on Action Planning.
It is anticipated that the programme will take 60 hours to complete.
What do practitioners gain from completing the programme?
- A comprehensive package of professional development that is based on current early years pedagogy to support them as they continually improve their practice.
- An opportunity to build upon practitioners’ skills and knowledge with peers and expert trainers, to improve the quality of adult-child interactions.
- Support to engage with parents and carers to support the home learning environment.
- The skills to identify children at risk of speech, language and communication needs.
- An understanding of the theory of child development in Early Mathematics, developed by subject experts, and how to support children’s early mathematical learning in everyday practice.
- The skills to support children’s self-confidence and self-awareness, managing feelings and behaviours, and making relationships through expertly developed Personal, Social and Emotional Development training.
- An opportunity to meet with other practitioners from different settings and offer peer support.
- Practitioners will receive an OCN London-endorsed CPD certificate on the completion of the programme, which recognises key competencies achieved by participating in the programme.
Early Years Specialist Jan Dubiel explains why he endorses the Early Years Professional Development Programme
Jan is an internationally-recognised specialist in early years education. In 2018 he was named as one of the ten most influential people in British education by the Times Educational Supplement.
Jan has decades of experience in the sector, as a Nursery, Reception and Year 1 teacher in schools across England and then leading teams as an Early Years coordinator. Jan is the former Head of National and International Development at Early Excellence, and now works as an independent speaker, consultant, trainer, author focusing on Early Years policy, pedagogy and practice. Jan is also the Project Director for hey! at Hempsalls – providing training, consultancy and policy development support for the sector.