Purnima Tanuku OBE, Chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association said she was disappointed functional skills equivalent to GCSEs would not be accepted as entry requirements for the Early Years Educator qualification.
"It is important high-quality childcare has a high-quality workforce and young people who aspire to that must have a viable route into the workforce. We agree with the aspiration of every EYE holding GCSE maths and English but would strongly recommend this is phased in and the importance of functional skills is recognised, with only 60% of young people leaving school with GCSE maths and English.
"We want to create a professional workforce and we already have a number of experienced, dedicated workers in the sector who are working on functional skills. To exclude them from developing their skills when we want childcare to be seen as an aspirational and valid career path is counter-productive."