Course Overview

This course will give you a thorough understanding of the early year's sector and your role as a practitioner providing you with both theoretical and practical skills. The course is carefully designed to offer appropriate skills and knowledge relating to professional practice, and the application of work-based experience. It also focuses on your self-development and independent learning, as well as teamwork and your ability to manage others.

This course is run on a full-time and part-time basis.

Skills and knowledge acquired from your modules combine to give you a thorough appreciation of a child's social and emotional development, covering issues of language, literacy and numeracy, knowledge and understanding of the world, and physical and creative development.

It is intended that, through this course, you will develop your critical, analytical and thinking skills sufficiently to become an independent reflective learner. You will also gain skills to work in teams in order to prepare you for the role of an effective Early Years practitioner. Early Years is a fast-growing sector and, as new developments and research in the field of Early Years Education emerge, you will have the opportunity to consider and evaluate the implications for policy, provision and practice. Your placement is core to succeeding on the course as all assessments are linked to you working with children in the Early Years sector.

A range of approaches to learning and teaching will be adopted across the individual modules which comprise the course, to provide a stimulating and challenging learning experience. Flexible approaches will be used to ensure achievement of specific module outcomes and to facilitate the different learning styles and needs of students. Attain (see below) will be utilised for engagement in forums, tasks and completing a Mahara page of evidence from your professional practice. You will be expected to carry out further research and wider reading outside taught sessions. Effective learning in taught sessions will involve you engaging in a variety of interactive tasks. There will be opportunities for you to work independently during taught sessions and you may be asked to carry out individual directed tasks which contribute to later seminar sessions. At times you will be expected to work with a small group of your colleagues to prepare and present items in subsequent sessions.

General Eligibility

You will need to be aged 18 years or over on or before 31 August of the academic year the course commences.

You will need at least one of the following:

• 48 UCAS tariff points

• An appropriate Level 3 qualification, for example a BTEC National Certificate or Diploma in Early Years, NVQ, CACHE Diploma, or Advanced Apprenticeship

• Access to HE qualification

It is essential to have a minimum of 2 GCSEs in English language and Maths at Grade 4 or above (formerly Grade C) at the point of enrolment. Alternatively, we can accept a Level 2 Function Skills qualification for Maths

All students must have a valid Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. It is the learners' responsibility to ensure this is in place before the start of the course.

Part Time Work Details

20 Hours of Work permit weekly for international students.

Language Requirement

• n/a