Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many students aged 16 to 19 are currently studying for Early Years qualifications.
During the 2021/22 academic year, the latest year of available data, there were 28,100 students aged 16 to 19 studying Early Years qualifications. This included 27,400 learners studying Early Years qualifications at English further education (FE) providers, and 700 full-person-equivalent entrants to Early Years subject areas at higher education (HE) level at English HE providers.
For FE, Early Years qualifications were defined as those on the ‘Early Years qualifications achieved in the United Kingdom’ published list, which is attached. For HE, Early Years subjects were defined as HECOS codes ‘100463 early years education’ and ‘100510 early years teaching’.