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Foreign Early Childhood qualifications

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Foreign Early Childhood qualifications
You are now reading: Foreign Early Childhood qualifications

Educator Certification Application (for Applicants with Foreign Early ​Childhood Qualifications)

​For applicants with foreign early childhood qualifications, ECDA will assess if the qualifications are sufficiently aligned to our ECDA-approved early childhood programmes.​

If you are currently not employed by a childcare centre or a kindergarten and does not have an ONE@ECDA account, you may do a preliminary assessment on whether your early childhood qualification meets ECDA’s requirements by using the self-assessment tool. 

Please note that the results of the assessment may not reflect the actual outcome of the educator certification application. An application for educator certification would still have to be submitted through ONE@ECDA for ECDA's assessment. Please refer to the table below on the documents required for educator certification.​

List of Documents Required for Educator Certification

S/NQualificationDocuments Required
1Early Childhood

The following documents must be submitted, unless otherwise stated
1.1 Early Childhood Graduation Certificate

1.2 Transcript including grading system1

1.3. Medium of Instruction2 from Training Agency/ Academic Institution

1.4. Details of the practicum from Training A​gency/ Academic Institution including the total number of hours spent providing care and education to children, aged 0 to 6 (or infant to kindergarten levels).

1.5. Course Module Description3 from Training Agency / Academic Institution

Only applicable for qualifications from People’s Republic of China (PRC)
1.6 China Higher Education Student Information and Career Center (CHSI) Online Verification Report, China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Center (CDGDC) Online Verification Report, or Notarial Certificate from China’s Notary Public Office is required for the graduation certificate. For other documents, please submit Notarial Certificate from China’s Notary Public Office.

1Applicants are advised to provide the grading system of the programme as passing grade is not standardised across all countries/institutions/programmes.

2Medium of Instruction for the programme is required for the following instances:

  1. If you wish to be certified as a English Language educator and your early childhood qualification is not obtained from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK or the USA.
  2. If you wish to be certified as a Chinese Language educator and your early childhood qualification is not obtained from the PRC or Taiwan.
  3. If you wish to be certified as a Malay, Tamil or Foreign Language educator.

3To avoid possible returning of application due to insufficient information submitted for our assessment, applicants are strongly advised to provide Course Module Description or Module Learning Objectives when applying for educator certification.

2Academic

The following documents must be submitted, unless otherwise stated
2.1 Graduation certificate and transcripts of all examination conducted by country/state at Secondary level (or equivalent) onwards including grading system 1 (e.g. Junior High/ Senior Middle 初中, 高中)/Diploma (专科)/Degree (本科)

2.2 Medium of Instruction2 from Training Agency/ Academic Institution

Only applicable for qualifications from People’s Republic of China (PRC)

2.3 China Higher Education Student Information and Career Center (CHSI) Online Verification Report, China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Center (CDGDC) Online Verification Report, or Notarial Certificate from China’s Notary Public Office is required for the graduation certificate. For other documents, please submit Notarial Certificate from China’s Notary Public Office.

1As the grading system for different country may differ, applicants are advised to provide this information for our assessment.

2There is no need to submit medium of instruction from Training Agency/ Academic Institution for the following instances:

  1. If your qualification is obtained from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK or USA and English language is the medium of instruction.
  2. If your qualification is obtained from China or Taiwan and Chinese language is the medium of instruction.
3Additional documents to show language proficiency

Submit the following documents where applicable
English Language Educator
3.1 Any of the English Language Acceptable Alternatives

Chinese Language Educator
3.2 Any of the Chinese Language Acceptable Alternatives

Malay LanguageEducator
​3.3 Any of the Malay Language Acceptable Alternatives

Tamil Language Educator
3.4 Any of the Tamil Language Acceptable Alternatives

4Letter of Notification (LON)Submit the following documents where applicable
4.1 Copy of LON from MCYS/MSF/MOE/ECDA

4.2 MCYS/MSF/MOE/ECDA Recognition Letter​

 

Please click here for the Chinese version of the above listing.

Important notes

  1. Only documents (including letters/emails) from official source are accepted for educator certification.
  2. A​ll official documents should be accompanied with issuing body’s school seal /school stamp/ letterhead/ signatory (e.g. Registrar of the University, Dean of the University and Lecturer of the course)​​.
  3. CHSI/CDGDC Online Verification Report or Notarial Certificate from China’s Notary Public Office is required for the graduat​ion certificate from the People’s Republic of China. All other documents from China (e.g. transcripts, course module description, practicum letter, etc.) must be notarised.
    1. Notarial certificates should clearly state the name and reference number of the student, title of programme, name of institution, type of document.
    2. The Notarial Certificate should state the authenticity of the document (e.g. verifying the Seal affixed on the original copy is authentic and not just certify that the photocopied is a true copy of the original.)
  4. An official translation of the documents (if the documents are not in the English language). Only translation done by registered translation service providers, High Commission/Embassy or the Notary public are accepted.

  5. When requested by ECDA, applicants will have to submit verification proof for their foreign qualification. The verification proof should meet all the requirements below:

  6. ECDA reserves the right to reject the application if:

    1. Documents submitted at point of educator certification application are incomplete
    2. Discrepancies in the documents are noted
    3. Documents are not from official source
    4. Documents appear to be tampered with
    5. Documents submitted do not meet educator certification requirements
  7. ECDA reserves the right to clarify and verify information furnished by the applicant for the application. If the applicant is found to have deliberately provided false information to ECDA, he/she may be liable to prosecution.

    8.  

     

Documents Required for Educator Certification

The documents required includes your Early Childhood, Academic and Language qualifications needed for ECDA to assess whether you meet the requirements for educator certification. Please refer to the full list of documents required in the table “Documents Required for Educator Certification” above.
For ECDA to do a complete assessment of your qualifications, you are advised to submit all your Early Childhood, Academic and Language qualifications.
As part of the assessment process, ECDA looks at whether the foreign Early Childhood qualification is closely aligned to the content of our ECDA-approved Early Childhood programmes. Therefore, we will refer to the course module description of the programme if the module titles stated in the transcript are not clear enough for ECDA to ascertain the content covered in the modules.
The school transcript is required for ECDA to ascertain the content covered in the Early Childhood programme. Applicants are also advised to provide the grading system of the programme as passing grade is not standardised across all countries/institutions/programmes.

You will need to provide an official document issued by the Academic institution on the medium of instruction for the programme for the following scenarios.

  1. If you wish to be certified as a English Language educator and your early childhood qualification is not obtained from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK or the USA.
  2. If you wish to be certified as a Chinese Language educator and your early childhood qualification is not obtained from the PRC or Taiwan.
  3. If you wish to be certified as a Malay, Tamil or Foreign Language educator.
You will need to provide an official document issued by the Academic institution on the medium of instruction for the programme if the qualification is not obtained from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, USA, PRC or Taiwan.
The additional information is required for ECDA to ascertain if the practicum was done with the relevant age group of children, and if the duration meets our educator certification requirements.
ECDA only accepts documents issued by the Academic institution. The documents should be accompanied with the issuing body’s school seal /school stamp/ letterhead/ and signature of the relevant person of the academic institution (e.g. Registrar of the University, Dean of the University and Lecturer of the course).
Please obtain a replacement graduation certificate and/or transcript, or other official documents on the proof of education from the Academic institution.
For applications submitted by the centre administrator on behalf of a staff, the centre administrator is required to verify and declare online in ONE@ECDA that the documents submitted are true and correct. Therefore, for self-submission of application, we would need a third neutral party to verify the authenticity of the documents to be submitted.

All documents (except for graduation certificate) from the PRC must be notarised (e.g. transcript, course module description, practicum letter, etc.). For graduation certificate, CHSI/CDGDC Online Verification Report and the Notarial Certificate from the PRC are acceptable for educator certification.​

Notarial certificates should clearly state the name of the student, the title of the programme, the name of the institution and the type of document being notarised. It should also state the authenticity of the document (e.g. verifying the seal affixed on the original copy is authentic and not just certify that the photocopied document is a true copy of the original).

An official English translation of the documents must also be included with the Chinese original copies. Only translations done by registered translation service providers, High Commission/Embassy or the Notary public are accepted.

Translations can be done through registered translation service providers, High Commission/Embassy or the Notary public office.

You may do a preliminary assessment on whether your early childhood qualification meets ECDA’s requirements by using the self-assessment tool for Educator Certification.​

Please note that the results of the assessment may not reflect the actual outcome of the educator certification application. An application for educator certification would still have to be submitted through ONE@ECDA for ECDA’s *assessment.

* ECDA periodically reviews our assessment criteria to ensure standards meet current needs.

You may request for your potential employer to submit an educator certification (pre-employment) application with the necessary supporting documents directly on your behalf via ONE@ECDA for our assessment. The list of documents required for educator certification can be found in the table "Documents Required for Educator Certification" above.

If your qualification is assessed to be recognised for educator certification, you will be issued with a Letter of Notification stating your certification level and the age group of children you are allowed to teach.

ECDA-approved early childhood programmes are designed to train early childhood educators to provide a quality preschool education for pre-schoolers through a holistic approach. Qualifications focused solely on the Montessori approach are therefore not recognised for Educator Certification.

You are certified at L2 Conditional (L2C) level as you have yet to attain a B4 in GCE ‘O’ Level language (or any of the Language Acceptable Alternatives). For a list of English or Second language (Chinese, Malay or Tamil) Acceptable Alternatives, please click on the relevant hyperlink below:

English Language Acceptable Alternatives ​​​​​ Chinese Language Acceptable Alternatives  Malay Language Acceptable Alternatives  Tamil Language Acceptable Alternatives

The L2C certification level is valid for 2 years from the date it is given, and you have up to 2 years from the date of L2C certification level to obtain a B4 in GCE ‘O’ Level Language (or any of the Language Acceptable Alternatives) to meet the L2 educator certification requirement. If you are unable to attain a B4 in the respective language within 2 years from obtaining your L2C certification, your certification level will be adjusted to L1 level. If you have attained a B4 in the respective language within 2 years from the date of your L2C certification, please submit an application to us through ONE@ECDA, for re-certification to L2 level. The certification level and the respective deployment level are summarized in the table below:

Certification Level Deployment Level
L2 Kindergarten, Nursery, Pre-Nursey and Playgroup 18 mths - 6YO
L2 Conditional (L2C) Kindergarten, Nursery, Pre-Nursey and Playgroup 18 mths - 6YO
L1 Nursery, Pre-Nursery and Playgroup 18 mths - 4YO

If you are only able to attain a B4 in the respective language after 2 years from the date of L2C certification, an application for re-certification can still be submitted. However, the application will be subjected to the prevailing educator certification requirements at the point of application.​

There is no need to retake the IELTS once you have obtained the required grade.