What Qualifications Do You Need to Work in a Nursery?

Written by Cat Baker , Group Manager at Paint Pots Nurseries | Early Years Qualified
What Qualifications Do You Need to Work in a Nursery?

Thinking about working in a nursery, but worried you need a folder full of qualifications before anyone will let you through the door?

Here’s the reassuring bit: you don’t always need an Early Years qualification before you can get started.

There are roles in early years where specific qualifications are required, particularly as you progress and take on more responsibility. But you don’t always need an early years qualification to start your career in a nursery.

In fact, some brilliant early years practitioners begin with something much more important: they genuinely enjoy being around children, they’re caring, patient, curious and willing to learn. The qualifications can come next.

At Paint Pots, we support team members to learn while they work, gain recognised early years qualifications and build a career over time.

So if you’ve been looking at early years careers and thinking, “I’d love to do that, but I’m not qualified enough,” don’t rule yourself out just yet.

Key takeaways

  •         You do not always need an early years qualification to start working in a nursery.
  •         Qualifications become more important for certain roles as you progress through your career.
  •         Early years settings must have the right mix of qualified staff to meet EYFS requirements.
  •         Level 2 and Level 3 early years qualifications are common routes into and through the profession.
  •         You can often earn while you learn, gaining qualifications alongside practical experience.
  •         You’ll need to complete the appropriate safeguarding and DBS checks for your role. These aren’t qualifications, but they are an important part of working safely with children.
  •         At Paint Pots, we support colleagues to progress, take further qualifications and develop specialist interests such as SEND, speech and language and children’s wellbeing.

If you’re already curious about working with us, take a look at our current Paint Pots vacancies to see what roles are available across our nurseries and preschools.

Do you need qualifications to work in a nursery?

Not for every role.

This is one of those questions where the answer is annoyingly, but importantly, “it depends”.

Early years settings in England have rules about staff qualifications because nurseries need the right balance of qualified practitioners within their teams. Under the current EYFS framework, a nursery manager must hold an approved Level 3 qualification or above, and at least half of the other staff must hold at least an approved Level 2 qualification.

But that does not mean every single person working in a nursery must already be qualified before they start.

At Paint Pots, we believe someone with the right attitude and genuine enthusiasm for working with children can have a fantastic early years career, even if they're right at the beginning of it.

At Paint Pots we’re passionate about supporting our team to learn, develop and progress.

That approach means you can gain valuable real-world experience while working towards qualifications, rather than having to complete everything before you've even discovered whether early years is the career for you.

Some of our roles require specific Early Years qualifications and others may suit people who are still building their experience. Have a look at our current vacancies to see what each role asks for.

What makes a good early years practitioner?

Qualifications matter, but they aren't the whole story.

You can teach someone about the EYFS. You can train them in safeguarding procedures. You can help them develop their understanding of child development.

It's considerably harder to teach someone to genuinely care.

Some of the qualities we look for in an early years practitioner are warmth, patience, enthusiasm, reliability and a willingness to get involved.

And yes, “get involved” sometimes means enthusiastically discussing a four-year-old's very important stick collection or discovering there is poster paint somewhere on your clothing several hours after you've gone home.

That's part of the charm!

Working in early years is incredibly rewarding, but it's also active, busy and wonderfully unpredictable. You'll be helping children learn new words, make friends, manage big feelings, discover new things and become more independent.

Some days the breakthrough will be something enormous.

Other days it will be a child finally putting their own coat on and looking as if they've just conquered Everest.

Both count.

What is a Level 2 early years qualification?

A Level 2 qualification is one of the entry-level qualification routes into childcare and early years.

For someone starting their career, it can help build the practical knowledge needed to work confidently with young children while developing an understanding of areas such as child development, safeguarding, communication and supporting children's everyday learning.

Approved Level 2 qualifications can allow practitioners to count as qualified staff within EYFS staff-to-child ratios. The Department for Education maintains a qualification checker because not every course with “childcare” in the title automatically meets the requirements.

So if you already have an older childcare qualification tucked away somewhere, don't assume it either counts or doesn't. It's worth checking.

And what about a Level 3 Early Years qualification?

Level 3 is a really important qualification level within the sector and opens the door to greater responsibility.

The current EYFS framework requires nursery managers to hold an approved Level 3 qualification or above. Level 3-qualified practitioners are also important within the staffing requirements for different age groups.

For someone building an early years career, reaching Level 3 can therefore be a significant step.

But it doesn't have to be the finish line.

At Paint Pots, we currently have colleagues working towards higher-level qualifications alongside their jobs, and we actively encourage people to keep developing if that's what they want to do.

You don't need to arrive with your entire career mapped out on day one.

Very few of us do!

Do you need a DBS check to work in a nursery?

Yes, safeguarding checks are an important part of working in Early Years.

If your role involves regularly caring for or supervising children, your employer will usually need to carry out the appropriate Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check before you can work in that role. For many nursery practitioner positions, this means an Enhanced DBS check with a check of the Children’s Barred List.

Don’t worry if you don’t already have one when you apply. The employer will normally guide you through the checks required for the particular role as part of the recruitment process.

It’s all part of making sure the children in our care are surrounded by safe, suitable adults, which is something every good Early Years setting takes very seriously.

Can you train while working in a nursery?

Absolutely, and for many people it's one of the best ways to learn.

Working alongside experienced practitioners means the things you're studying aren't just words on a page. You're seeing child development, communication, safeguarding and learning through play happening around you every day.

At Paint Pots, team members can work towards recognised early years qualifications alongside their role. We also advertise vacancies internally, so colleagues have opportunities to apply for new roles and take on more responsibility as they develop.

That's important to us because we'd much rather help good people build a career here than make them feel they need to move somewhere else every time they're ready for their next step.

Our wider recruitment strategy reflects exactly that. Paint Pots wants to be somewhere people can build a long-term career, with visible progression, training and supportive leadership, rather than simply somewhere they come to fill a vacancy.

If you're currently looking at nursery practitioner vacancies or early years practitioner jobs, that's worth asking potential employers about too.

Don't just ask, “What's the job?”

Ask, “Where could this job take me?”

If learning on the job sounds like your kind of route into Early Years, check our latest vacancies and see where your Paint Pots career could start.

What can an early years career lead to?

Quite a lot!

Someone might start in an entry-level nursery role, gain their Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications, become a more senior practitioner and eventually move into room leadership or nursery management.

Others discover an area of early years they're particularly passionate about and choose to develop specialist knowledge instead.

At Paint Pots, we provide additional training that allows colleagues to explore areas including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), speech and language development and children's wellbeing.

And that's one of the things we love about early years careers. You don't have to decide at 18, 25, 35 or 45 exactly what your eventual job title will be.

You can start by discovering what you're good at.

Maybe you're brilliant at helping nervous children settle.

Maybe you have endless patience for messy play.

Maybe supporting children with SEND becomes the part of the job you're most passionate about.

Maybe, several years down the line, you realise you're the one everyone comes to for advice and suddenly nursery manager jobs don't feel quite as far away as they once did.

Careers have a habit of growing when people are given the space to grow with them.

What if I already have a childcare qualification?

Great! But it's worth checking exactly what your qualification allows you to do.

Early years qualification rules have changed over time, and whether a qualification counts as “approved” can depend on things such as the qualification itself and when it was started or awarded.

The Department for Education has an online early years qualification checker which managers and practitioners can use to confirm whether a UK qualification is approved as full and relevant for working within EYFS staff-to-child ratios at Level 2, 3 or 6.

If you're applying to Paint Pots and aren't sure whether an older qualification counts, we'd much rather you ask than decide not to apply.

Nobody expects you to have memorised several decades of childcare qualification rules. That would be a fairly niche party trick.

Do you need qualifications to become a nursery manager?

Yes. This is where the requirements become more specific.

Under the current EYFS framework for registered early years settings, the manager must hold an approved qualification at Level 3 or above. Managers appointed to a role from January 2024 onwards also have requirements around a suitable Level 2 maths qualification, and the EYFS says managers should have at least two years' relevant early years or suitable experience.

So if you're eventually interested in nursery manager jobs or nursery manager vacancies, qualifications and experience will naturally become a bigger part of the picture.

But again, nobody starts their first nursery job on Monday and gets handed the keys to the building on Tuesday!

A career is built in stages.

Is working in a nursery a good career?

We're probably slightly biased here, but yes!

Working with young children comes with responsibility, and there will absolutely be tiring days. Anyone promising otherwise has possibly never tried persuading several small children to put waterproof trousers on at the same time.

But you also get a front-row seat to an extraordinary stage of people's lives.

You'll see first words, new friendships, huge bursts of confidence and countless little moments that would look unremarkable to anyone else but mean everything when you know how hard that child has worked to get there.

If working with children sounds like something you’d love to explore, take a look at our current Paint Pots vacancies. You might be closer to an Early Years career than you think.

Thinking about working in early years?

If you've been searching for jobs working with children but haven't considered a nursery before, don't let a lack of qualifications automatically put you off.

Look at the individual role.

Some of our vacancies require specific early years qualifications because of the responsibilities involved. Others may offer the opportunity to join the sector, learn from experienced colleagues and work towards qualifications while you're here.

What we're looking for will always depend on the vacancy, but enthusiasm, warmth and a genuine desire to make a difference to children's lives are a pretty good place to start.

If you're looking for nursery jobs in Southampton, childcare jobs in Southampton or opportunities across our wider Paint Pots group, take a look at our current nursery and preschool vacancies.

And if one catches your eye, apply!

You don't need to wait until you feel 110% qualified, confident and mysteriously free of nerves. We'd much rather meet the person behind the CV.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I work in a nursery with no qualifications?

Yes, some nursery roles are open to people who do not yet hold a formal early years qualification. Early years settings do, however, have statutory qualification requirements across their wider teams, so whether you need a particular qualification will depend on the role.

At Paint Pots, we support colleagues to work towards recognised qualifications while working.

What qualification is best for working in a nursery?

Level 2 and Level 3 early years qualifications are common routes into the profession. Which one is right for you depends on your existing experience and the role you want to work towards.

It's important to make sure a qualification is recognised by the Department for Education for the relevant EYFS requirements. The GOV.UK early years qualification checker can help with this.

Do I need a Level 3 qualification to be an early years practitioner?

Not every nursery practitioner role requires you to already hold Level 3, but Level 3 becomes important for particular responsibilities and for how settings meet EYFS staffing requirements.

If you're looking at early years practitioner jobs, check the requirements on the individual vacancy rather than assuming every role asks for the same thing.

Can I get qualified while working?

Yes. Many people gain early years qualifications while working in a nursery.

Paint Pots supports team members to learn, develop and work towards higher-level qualifications alongside their role.

What skills do you need to work in a nursery?

Alongside the appropriate qualifications for your role, being caring, patient, enthusiastic, reliable and willing to learn will take you a long way.

A sense of humour doesn't hurt either.

Neither does accepting that glitter has absolutely no respect for personal boundaries.

Can working in a nursery become a long-term career?

Definitely.

Early years careers can lead into senior practitioner roles, specialist areas, room leadership, management and further professional development.

At Paint Pots, vacancies are advertised internally and colleagues are encouraged to keep learning and progressing within the organisation.

Where can I find nursery jobs in Southampton?

You can view the current vacancies on the Paint Pots careers page, including opportunities across our nurseries and preschools.

If you're searching for early years jobs, nursery jobs or childcare jobs in Southampton, it's worth checking back regularly as vacancies will vary across our settings.

 

Useful resources

If you’d like to check the official guidance for yourself, these are the best places to start: