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Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships offer a way to gain training, develop new skills and qualifications whilst you work and earn. Find out more about how to become an apprentice, if you are an employer, how to recruit an apprentice and if you are a learning provider, the certification process.

What are apprenticeships?

If you are aged 16 or over and want to work in social care or early years and childcare, an apprenticeship is a good place to start.

Apprenticeships offer a way to gain training, develop new skills and qualifications whilst you work and earn.

Apprentices are paid, like other employees. Their salary will depend on their age, experience, skills and ability.

Apprenticeships are a mix of vocational qualifications and essential skills (which include literacy and numeracy and in some apprenticeships an optional choice of digital skills) which you can achieve when you are working in either social care or early years and child care.

What apprenticeships are available?

There are apprenticeships available at levels 2,3,4 and 5.

There are no formal entry requirements for these apprenticeships but you would need to be in a relevant role that matches the level of the apprenticeship you are undertaking.

Example roles available at different levels:

As a level 2 apprentice you could be a:

  • Care worker with adults
  • Day care or creche assistant practitioner.

As a level 3 apprentice you could be a:

  • Care and support worker with children and young people or a senior care and support worker with adults
  • Day care or creche practitioner.

As a level 4 apprentice you could be a:

  • Supervisor, team leader, practice leader or deputy manager of a care service
  • Care and support worker with children and young people or a senior care and support worker with adults
  • Day care or creche deputy manager.

As a level 5 apprentice you would be a:

  • Manager or deputy manager of social care or early years and child care Flying Start Manager.

How long will it take to complete an apprenticeship?

Completing an apprenticeships varies so it is difficult to give exact times for completion so the following is just a guide:

  • Level 2 Apprenticeships should take around 12 months
  • Level 3 Apprenticeships 12 to 18 months
  • Level 4 and 5 apprenticeships should take between 18 months to 30 months.

You will be given an Individual Apprenticeship Plan to assess the time it will take for you to complete your apprenticeship which will look at:

  • what you already know
  • qualifications you already have
  • experience you have in social care or early years and child care
  • support you may need.

What roles are available

Find out about roles within the social care and the early years and childcare sectors.

WeCare Wales

Information on roles and job opportunities in social care or early years and child care in Wales.

How to find a suitable apprenticeship

Visit Careers Wales for more information on how to access an apprenticeship to meet your needs.

Information for employers

When we develop new apprenticeships or review existing ones, we consult employers to help us identify the skills needed in the workforce.

Our role is to make sure that all apprenticeships follow the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards in Wales.

Employers will be responsible for:

  • recruiting an apprentice (a training provider may help with this)
  • ensuring pre-employment checks are in place including Disclosure and Barring Service checks see the Government's guidance
  • paying an employed apprentice
  • providing a suitable learning experience, see our useful work placement guide
  • training the apprentice
  • making sure the apprentice has time for learning
  • reviewing the apprentice’s progress.

Apprentices are given salaries, like other employees. Their salary will depend on their age, experience, skills and ability.

Business Wales provides information to employers on:

  • recruiting an apprentice
  • how to advertise a vacancy suitable for an apprentice
  • funding available to support you when employing an apprentice.

Details of each apprenticeship framework

The details of the various frameworks for social care or early years and child care, outlining the qualification and essential skills requirements for each of the apprenticeships are available below:

Information for learning providers certification

The details of all social care or early years and child care apprenticeship frameworks are available on the Apprenticeship Certification Wales (ACW) website.

Learning providers can register their centre with ACW. Following successful completion of registration, you will receive a confirmation email from us.

ACW makes it possible for training providers to:

  • apply for apprenticeship certificates
  • meet the rules and quality assurance requirements.

Our role at Social Care Wales is to help check evidence to make sure it meets the required standards. We then send certificates to learning providers who then award the apprenticeship to their learners.

There are three evidence checklists for learning providers to use whilst certifying apprenticeships on ACW. They are for frameworks in:

Contact us if you have any queries relating to the Evidence Checklist or proxy qualifications.

How to create an ACW on-line account

Apprenticeship Certificates Wales (ACW) is managed by the Federation of Industry Sector Skills and Standards and not by Social Care Wales.

To create an online account:

  • register your Centre on ACW
  • add your details
  • select ‘Social Care Wales’ from the ‘related body’ menu
  • ACW will prompt us to provide you with a login. We aim to activate login requests within 3 working days
  • an email will be sent to you with your username and password.

Please note: we do not issue separate ACW logins for different frameworks. The admin login will allow you to create 5 individual usernames and passwords for staff within your organisation.

More information on how to use ACW visit the ACW website. For further guidance contact ACW directly on acw@fisss.org or by phone on 0300 303 4444.

Contact us

If you have a question or if you can't find what you are looking for get in touch with us.

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First published: 14 October 2019
Last updated: 8 December 2022
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