Practitioner Conversion Course (Early Years)

Course Outcomes

This course is worth 5 CPD points to Thrive Licensed Practitioners.

Completing this training will enable you to effectively support the social and emotional development of babies, toddlers and young children between the ages of 0 to 5 years.

Who is it for?

This course is suitable for Thrive Licensed Practitioners who have completed the Childhood course, and who are now working with babies, toddlers or young children in a range of early years settings such as private, voluntary and independent settings or in mainstream early years foundation stage.

Please note, prices are for courses starting on or after January 1st 2026.

What you'll learn

This course builds on the foundation of your Thrive Licensed Practitioner training for Childhood, deepening your understanding of early years development.

You will explore:

• How the brain and body develop during the first three years and why these changes are essential for building strong stress-regulation systems and emotional resilience.
  
  
• The concepts of right time, key time and within time, and how these principles help practitioners connect with and support babies, toddlers and young children effectively.
  
  
• How to use cognitive strategies such as lending your thinking brain, Captain Thinking, and shining a light to promote right-time development.
  
  
• Ways to use play, creativity and the arts to strengthen emotional resilience within early years practice.
  
  
• How you can use Thrive-Online (our assessment, measurement and monitoring tool) to enhance your work with babies, toddlers and young children, providing you with access to a wide range of strategies and activities tailored to this age group.

Course structure

The course should take around 2 hours to complete.

The course is made up of 9 e-learning modules:

Module 1: The neuroscience and theory during early years

Module 2: Practicing Thrive at early years

Module 3: The developmental model at early years

Module 4: Meltdowns and outbursts

Module 5: How play creativity and the arts support social and emotional development at early years

Module 6: Understanding the core emotions at early years

Module 7: Key strategies to support development

Module 8: Supporting staff, parents and carers

Module 9: Using thrive online at early years

Each module is completed independently, meaning you can work at your own pace. You will work through the 9 interactive e-learning modules and then complete a quiz at the end. You will need to score an 80% pass mark to successfully achieve Early Years Licensed Practitioner status.