Amber Publications & TRAINING LTD

History of APT

‘Amber Publications’ was formed in 1991, by Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram to produce and publish the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. The Journal is now published by one of the world’s great publishing houses, Taylor and Francis.

Initially, Amber Publications existed only to produced the journal of EECERA (using a designated ISBN) but, as Chris and Tony by this time had set up a research centre, the Centre for Research in Early Childhood, (CREC) based in the UK’s Midland region, Amber Publications became increasingly used for other books, reports and programmes they were writing. Amber published the research, evaluation and training documents they wrote following the international, national and regional activities they undertook from 1993 until 2007. These Amber publications included the Effective Early Learning Programme for the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the National Evaluation of the Early Excellence Project for the DfES, an International Study of Integrated Centres for the British Council and many more.

Together with its sister organisation, ‘CREC in Birmingham’, Amber Publications was re-launched in Spring 2007 becoming Amber Publications and Training. In the same year, the Board of EECERA agreed that the publication of EECERJ would be contracted to the Taylor and Francis and Amber Publications extended its activities to include training, hence ‘APT’. CREC, has become an independent Charitable Trust under the auspices of the UK’s Charity Commissioners, and is supported by APT’s income. CREC arranges the accreditation of APT’s courses and CREC’s own research and Master’s level students (including the NPQICL module) through its collaboration with three major Universities located in the Midlands: Birmingham University, Birmingham City University and Wolverhampton University.

CREC is a strategic partner within the City of Birmingham’s Children and Young People and Family Directorate. CREC and APT share offices within the city’s St Thomas Children’s Centre under a service level agreement with the city. Since its creation, APT has been increasingly successful, enabling it to fulfil its primary aim of expanding the knowledge base of early years practice and contributing to the development of the early years workforce.