LEVEL OF HIGHEST QUALIFICATION RELEVANT TO EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE


Technical name: Person (employed) - level of highest qualification in early childhood education and care, code N[N]
METeOR identifier: 441594
METeOR link: http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/441594
METeOR definition: The highest level of early childhood education and care-related qualification a person employed in early childhood education and care has attained, as represented by a code.

Scope
Inclusions: All paid contact workers within early childhood education and care services.
Exclusions: Unpaid workers and non-contact workers within early childhood education and care services.

Underlying Concepts
Concept: Level of highest qualification relevant to early childhood education and care.
Nominal definition: The highest level of qualification a person has obtained in a field of study relevant to early childhood education and care.
Operational definition: The highest level of qualification a person has obtained in a field of study relevant to early childhood education and care, as reported by the worker.
Supporting data elements: Field of highest qualification relevant to early childhood education and care
Conceptual issues:

• The level of qualification reported should be in relation to the data element Field of highest qualification relevant to early childhood education and care.

• A 'Bachelor degree pass 4 or 3 year equivalent' includes staff who have been deemed to have the necessary skills and qualifications to be employed as a 4 or 3 year degree equivalent teacher by the jurisdiction.

• 'Equivalent' refers to when certain employment and educational experience is deemed to be comparable to a certain level of qualification. For example, an individual, or group of individuals, may have an early childhood diploma and 10 years' experience, but the government department or regulatory agency has recognised the individual's, or group of individuals', qualifications as equivalent to a four year early childhood university degree.

Standard Jurisdictional Output Categories
Classification scheme: Australian Standard Classification of Education 2001
Representation class: Code
Data type: Number
Format: N[N]
Maximum character length: 2
Classification values:

1 - Postgraduate degree
2 - Graduate diploma or graduate certificate level
3 - Bachelor degree (honours)
4 - Bachelor degree pass (4 years or equivalent)
5 - Bachelor degree pass (3 years or equivalent)
6 - Advanced diploma
7 - Diploma
8 - Certificate level 3 or 4
9 - Certificate level 1 or 2
10 - Other certificate

Supplementary values:

97 - Not applicable (no qualification in early education and care related field)
99 - Not stated/inadequately described

	Edit specifications	Edit resolution
1.	If field is blank.	Provide a valid level of qualification code, otherwise amend to code ‘99’.
2.	If field is not code 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 97 or 99.	Provide a valid level of qualification code. Where jurisdictional levels of qualification differ from ECEC NMDS categories, the ABS requests that a concordance is supplied to verify code mapping.
3.	If field contains text or character length is greater than 2.	Provide a valid level of qualification code.

Guide for Use
Counting rules:

• Report the specific level of education in which the early childhood education and care worker has attained their highest early childhood education and care related qualification.

• This information may be collected by obtaining all education qualifications for the early childhood education and care worker, and through a concordance, identifying the level of the highest qualification relevant to early childhood education and care.

• Only completed qualifications should be reported.

• The classification structure outlined above details the levels of qualification from the highest qualification to the lowest qualification (i.e. 'Code 1 - Postgraduate degree' is the highest qualification, whereas 'Code 10 - Other certificate' is the lowest qualification).

 
Classification Definitions
CODE 1 Postgraduate degree
This level includes Doctorates and Masters Degrees, either by research or coursework. Common entry requirements are completion of a Bachelor Degree (with or without Honours) and a qualifying year or equivalent, or a research based Graduate Diploma.

CODE 2 Graduate diploma and graduate certificate level
The Graduate Diploma is usually the equivalent of one year of full time study, while the Graduate Certificate is usually the equivalent of six months full time study. Entry to a Graduate Diploma or Graduate Certificate is usually through satisfactory completion of a Bachelor Degree or an Advanced Diploma, and demonstrated potential to complete work at this level. Postgraduate certificates and diplomas are also included in this category.
CODE 3 Bachelor degree (honours)
Honours is the extended period of study in a specialised field which is offered to students in some courses achieving outstanding results in a relevant discipline or demonstrating outstanding achievement in the early years of a Bachelor program.

CODE 4 Bachelor degree pass (4 years or equivalent)
Entry to this level is by various pathways which may include the completion of Year 12 or equivalent, or completion of a recognised program and/or recognition of prior learning. Four year university qualified refers to the length of the of qualification if the whole program was studied full-time.

CODE 5 Bachelor degree pass (3 years or equivalent)
Entry to this level is by various pathways which may include the completion of Year 12 or equivalent, or completion of a recognised program and/or recognition of prior learning. Three year university qualified refers to the length of the qualification if the whole program was studied full-time.

CODE 6 Advanced diploma
Education at this level includes analysing information and concepts at an abstract level and executing judgements across a range of technical and management functions. Entry to this level is by various pathways which may include the completion of Year 12 or equivalent, or completion of a recognised program and/or recognition of prior learning.

CODE 7 Diploma
Education at this level may also develop basic management or administrative skills. Entry to this level is by various pathways which may include the completion of Year 12 or equivalent, or completion of a recognised program and/or recognition of prior learning.

CODE 8 Certificate level 3 or 4
Entry to this level is by various pathways which may include the completion of Year 10 or equivalent, or higher, or completion of a recognised program and/or recognition of prior learning.
 
CODE 9 Certificate level 1 or 2
Entry to this level is by various pathways which may include the completion of Year 10 or equivalent, or higher, or completion of a recognised program and/or recognition of prior learning.

CODE 10 Other certificate
Any certificate not covered by the previous two categories.

CODE 97 Not applicable (no qualification in early childhood education and care related field)
Use this code when there is no qualification in an early childhood education and care related field.

CODE 99 Not stated/inadequately described
For use when the level of highest relevant qualification of the worker is unknown, not stated or inadequately described. Where the field of qualification is unknown, the ABS requests that jurisdictions identify the reason for the unknown response and document any follow-up processes undertaken.

Other Information
For more information on ASCED, see Australian Standard Classification of Education (cat. no. 1272.0).

Related aggregate data element: Level of highest qualification relevant to early childhood education and care.

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