Welcome to the NQF e-bulletin, the department’s e-newsletter to support early childhood education
and care services to implement the National Quality Framework.
Time is ticking toward qualification changes
Ensure your service meets the National Law
Qualification requirements under the National Law change on 1 January 2014 for family day care and centre-based services with children under school age (primarily long day care and kindergarten services).
Ways to meet the National Law
You can check if the educators required to meet educator-to-child ratios in your service will meet the new qualification requirements by:
- working through our centre-basedCertificate III and Diploma qualifications flowchart
- working through our centre-based early childhood teacher qualifications flow chart
- reading the department’s web page on ways to meet centre-based qualification requirements.
Check the range of support and incentives available to help you meet the staffing qualification requirements.
If your service is unable to meet theserequirements from 1 January 2014, you will be in breach of the National Law.
Approved providers having genuine difficulty meeting the staffing qualification requirements should apply for a temporary waiver. The department will assess each waiver application on a case-by-case basis. Services will be notified of the department’s decision within 60 calendar days after the application and all supporting evidence is received in full.
Read waiver application information and FAQs.
ACECQA updates qualification lists
The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) has developed2new online tools to help educators and providers apply for assessment of their qualifications and search for approved qualifications. Read more about the online tools.
ACECQA’s individual qualification lists are no longer available in PDF format. They have been replaced by the search tool. There are now 2 ways to find approved qualifications using the search tool:
- Find a list – view the individual qualification lists including approved and former approved qualifications using the ‘Qualifications list’ drop down menu
- Find a qualification – search for your qualification using the prompts.
Early childhood teacher illness or absence
From 1 January 2014, centre-based services with children under school age (primarily long day care and kindergarten services) must have access to an early childhood teacher (ECT) or have one in attendance at the service. These requirements vary based on the size of the service and operating hours.
If an ECT is absent because of short-term illness or leave, an educator with an approved Diploma-level qualification or a primary teaching degree may be counted as the ECT for up to
12 weeks.
More information
- Visit the department’s qualification changes web page.
- Contact ACECQA on 1300 4 ACECQA (1300 422 327) or via for qualification enquiries.
- Contact your local regional office for more information on applying for a temporary waiver.
- Read past NQF e-bulletin editions explaining regulatory requirements.
Visit our website|Contact us|Subscribe to A to Z of Early Childhood monthly e-newsletter for more information about early childhood education and care initiatives in Queensland.To subscribe to the NQF e-bulletin,email us with your contact details with ‘subscribe’ in the subject line or ‘unsubscribe’ if you no longer wish to receive this email newsletter.
|December 2013 |