Find out about the Level 3 qualification

The Level 3 Award: Supporting Children and Young People’s Speech, Language and Communication supports the continuing professional development of those working with children and young people.

The course aims to boost your knowledge and skills in:

• observing and recognising stages of development in speech, language and communication
• helping you to identify children who are experiencing difficulties
• as well as an opportunity to develop your confidence in working with parents to support their child’s speech, language and communication development.

The Award is relevant for practitioners in a wide range of settings, including early years, health, social care and schools. It is particularly relevant to those working directly with children and young people (aged 0-19) in learning and development roles such as early years practitioners, teachers and teaching assistants.

• 1 million children in the UK have speech, language and communication needs SLCN (I CAN, 2016)
• 2 children in every class will have clinically significant language difficulties (Norbury, 2016)
• 50% of children in some areas start school with delayed language (I CAN, 2016)
• In primary schools, more children have language difficulties than any other special need (I CAN, 2016)
• Up to 80% of pupils in some secondary schools have poor language skills (I CAN, 2016)

Raising the skill level of everyone working with children and young people can help to increase the quality of provision and ensures better outcomes for children and young people.

The importance of the qualification also links to a number of key governmental policy areas including:

• Children & Families Act 2014, SEND Code of Practice and SEND Reforms
• 30 hour free childcare entitlement
• 2 year progress check
• Early Years Foundation Stage
• Healthy Child Programme 0-19 years

For successful completion of the Award you must complete three units – two mandatory and one of a choice of four optional units. Each unit is 3 credits, apart from one of the optional units which is 4 credits. These have been developed to appeal to a wide range of learners, so you’ll be able to choose something that’s just right for you.

Download the learning outcomes and assessment criteria for each of the units (.docx)

The qualification is suitable for anyone working with children and young people. It is a Level 3 qualification which is equivalent to A Level standard, so the Award will be appropriate for anyone who feels confident working at this level. As the qualification is knowledge and skills based, learners will need to be working with children and young people in some capacity in order to demonstrate their skills.

The entry requirements will be dependent on the training provider. Some training providers may require learners to complete a written test, so please contact each training provider directly by following the links on the Interested in Platform 3? page to find out about their specific entry requirements.

The Communication Trust is working with a number of training providers linked to the awarding organisations who offer the Award (CACHE and Ascentis) to provide more opportunities for the children and young people’s workforce to access this valuable qualification.

The current training providers are listed below alongside the awarding organisations they are linked to:

• Central Bedfordshire Children’s Trust - CACHE
• Course Beetle - CACHE
• Creativity in Practice - CACHE
• Elklan - Ascentis
• PACEY - CACHE
• Wendy Lee Ltd - CACHE