So you want to work in childcare?

This 'on-line' introductory course will help you to understand more about working in childcare. It will help you to progress to other introductory childcare courses, e.g. Getting Started in Pre-School Practice or NVQ Level 2 Childcare.

There are 6 sessions or topics. This course may be completed in 6 classroom sessions or it may take longer.

• What skills and qualities you have now.
• What skills and qualities you will need to work in childcare.
• Different types of childcare.
• What helps us learn and what makes learning difficult.
• How children develop.
• The Early Years Curriculum. What children learn at nursery school and how they learn.
• What we can do to help every child learn, be happy and develop well.

How will you learn?

You will complete different tasks and activities which will help to develop your language skills and understanding of words used in childcare. We will ask you to email your tutor to let them know how you are doing. When you have finished the whole course we will ask you to consider what you have learnt. This will help us to choose the next course for you.

We hope you will enjoy this introductory Childcare course.

Note for tutors
The materials in the workbook and this website are designed on the principle of easification rather than simplification. Arguing against the simplification of legal texts for second language readers, Bhatia maintains that “the use of simplified material means that the learner's encounter with the authentic, unsimplified text is postponed for a considerable time” (1983: 45). This ESOL Childcare course may be considered a bridging course to support progression into mainstream childcare courses where the second language speaker must inevitably encounter the ‘authentic, unsimplified text’.  Using easification as a pedagogic design principle, be it on paper or through new technology, problematic language can be made accessible without resorting to simplification. For further reading in easification as design principle see Woulds & Simpson, 2010.

Bhatia, V.K. (1983) ‘Simplification v. Easification – the case of legal texts’. Applied Linguistics 4(1):42-54.

Woulds, S. and Simpson, J. (2010) “‘Dead on the page’ no more! The case for authentic, locally appropriate ESOL materials,” Language Issues, Vol. 21, No. 1.