Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of qualified early years teachers in nurseries.

The department delivers early years initial teacher training places through the National College for Teaching and Leadership. There are four training routes available: undergraduate, assessment only, graduate entry and graduate employment based. To encourage take up, the Department funds course fees, pays bursaries to eligible trainees on the graduate entry route and provides financial support to employers for those trainees on the graduate employment based route.

As part of our thinking on the early years workforce strategy we will be considering how best to continue to grow the graduate workforce, including supporting improved career progression.