Health visitors' assistants
* Health visitors' assistants are increasingly nursery nurses who work in primary healthcare teams alongside and under the supervision of health visitors, to agreed protocols. Their exact roles are being defined and new skills mixes introduced as the number of nursery nurses working in such positions grows, although policies vary in different health trusts.
For more information, contact your local Community NHS Trust.
Hospital play specialists
* Hospital play specialists play a vital role for children and their families during a stay in hospital. As non-medical workers immediately connected with children and their illnesses, they are the people families turn to for explanations and support. Knowledge of the therapeutic value of play is at the core of their work with the children who come into contact with the hospital, both as in-and out-patients.
Fifteen colleges run the Edexcel Professional Development Certificate in Hospital Play Specialism (HPS). However, some hospitals employ nursery nurses as play assistants and will second them to HPS courses. Normally a CACHE Diploma in Child Care and Education or equivalent is required for courses but mature candidates will be considered on life experiences.
For more information and a list of colleges, write, enclosing a large SAE, to Jackie Ellis, National Association of Hospital Play Staff information officer, Fladgate, Forty Green, Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 1XS, website www.nahps.org.uk.
* East Antrim Institute of Further and Higher Education runs a Hospital play specialist course. This one-year, part-time course is designed to give training and experience to those wishing to specialise in working with children in hospitals. The entry requirements are normally a professional qualification in a relevant field and a minimum of three years' experience working with children in a group setting.
Contact either Student Services or the School of Social, Caring and Personal Services, East Antrim Institute of Further and Higher Education, 400 Shore Road, Newtownabbey BT37 9RS (028 9085 5000, fax 028 9086 2076, e-mail Pam.shields@ eaifhe.ac.uk, website eaifhe.ac.uk).
Maternity nurse
* Maternity nurses care for newborn babies and offer support to their mothers, carrying out duties such as bathing, changing and feeding day and night. Positions often occur in families with first babies or twins or triplets. They tend to be short-term - often for only three or four months, and the high pay reflects the long hours demanded of them. No extra qualifications are required beyond a CACHE Diploma in Nursery Nursing or BTec but experience with newborns is essential. However, families often prefer to employ maternity nurses with medical nursing experience.
Many nanny agencies advertise these jobs - see the Nursery World 'Jobs with families' maternity nursing section for specific posts.
Tinies runs an intensive, London-based, two-day weekend maternity practitioner course. It is run by a group of highly-trained health professionals, including a midwife teacher, a health visitor and a community practice teacher, and is designed for qualified, mature nursery nurses, nannies or midwives with good baby care experience wishing to career change to being a maternity nanny, or for those wishing to update their knowledge and skills. The course would also benefit those working in baby units within a nursery.
Contact Jenny O'Neill at Tinies (020 7384 0322, fax 020 7731 6008, e-mail info@tinieschildcare. co.uk, website www.tinieschildcare.co.uk).
Montessori teacher
* Montessori is a holistic approach which educates children physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally. A Montessori diploma opens doors to the many Montessori schools in the UK and thousands more overseas - particularly in the US, Canada, the Far East and Sweden. Many qualified teachers open their own schools. Montessori courses are accredited by major UK educational bodies and several colleges offer courses.
Students come from all over the world to study at the Maria Montessori Training Organisation, which is affiliated to the Association Montessori Internationale. It runs a one-year, full-time course and a two-year, part-time evening course. The minimum entry requirements for its courses are two A-levels or seven or eight GCSEs. However, students meeting other criteria may be accepted without these paper qualifications following an interview.
Contact the Maria Montessori Training Organisation, 26 Lyndhurst Gardens, London NW3 5NW (020 7435 3646, fax 020 7431 8096, e-mail montessoriuk@cs.com,website www.montessori-ami.org).
* The Montessori Centre International runs a number of courses. These include a one-year, full-time or part-time early childhood course, which prepares graduates to work with children aged between two-and-a-half and six. All candidates are assessed for entry on individual merits and can begin the course in September or February. The syllabus includes Montessori philosophy, child development and observations, contemporary issues in early years safety, first aid, health and nutrition.
The Montessori early years curriculum subjects include education of the senses, practical life activities, numeracy and literacy, and cultural and creative studies. This course is designed to develop a high level of professional competence in students wishing to be Montessori teachers in the early years. The diploma is also recognised internationally.
The course is also offered to postgraduates and people with the CACHE Diploma in Child Care and Education. The course content remains the same, but the assessment is more challenging, reflecting the student's previous academic experience. It is available in September for full-time and September or February for part-time entry.
The Infant Toddler course, which is offered as part-time study starting in September, is open to graduates holding the Early Childhood certificate and focuses on work with children from birth to the age of three. The syllabus includes Montessori philosophy, child development and observations relevant to the age group, as well as detailed looks at developmentally-appropriate activities for babies and toddlers. It also gives an insight into school and classroom management. The course has been designed for those students who aspire to start their own nursery school and who are interested in working with younger children.
Contact the Montessori Centre International, 18 Balderton Street, London W1Y 6TG (020 7493 0165, fax 020 7629 7808, e-mail mci@montessori.ac.uk,website www.montessori.ac.uk).
* For information about accredited Montessori courses, send an SAE to Montessori Education UK, 21 Vineyard Hill, London SW19 7JL (020 8946 4433, website www.montessorieducation.uk.org).
Nurse
* There are two routes leading to registration as a qualified nurse - these are via either a diploma in higher education or a degree in nursing studies. Programmes are delivered by institutions of higher education (HE) and practice is gained in a variety of settings, including the community and hospitals. Students studying either the degree or the diploma course require the same amount of practice and theory.
The minimum entry requirement is five GCSEs grades A to C or equivalents. These include a kite-marked access course to health and social care, NVQ Level 3 in Care or the CACHE Diploma in Nursery Nursing or the BTec national diploma. The CACHE Diploma in Nursery Nursing now allows entry on to nurse training courses. It can also be used for entry to midwifery training provided the candidate has GCSE grade C in English Language, and in mathematics or a science subject.
It is also possible to work with babies and children in a hospital setting without committing yourself to the intensive three-year, full-time course which a nursing qualification requires. Children's hospitals and paediatric and maternity units all recruit nursery nurses as support staff, though not in great numbers. You may also like to ask for information about a four-year degree which combines nursing training with social work related to learning disability support, at South Bank University, University of Hertfordshire and the University of Portsmouth.
For further information contact NHS Careers, PO Box 376, BS99 3EY (0845 606 0655, fax 0117 921 9562, e-mail advice@ nhscareers. nhs.uk, website www.nhs.uk/careers).
* The minimum standard for the three-year pre-registration diploma in higher education is set by the UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting. However, each higher education institution can set its own entry criteria over and above the minimum requirements.
Contact the Nursing and Midwifery Admissions Service (NMAS), Rosehill, New Barn Lane, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL52 3LZ (01242 544949, fax 01242 544 962, e-mail enquiries@nmas.ac.uk,website www.nmas.ac.uk).
NVQ assessor
* If you have reached the stage in your own career when your knowledge and maturity could benefit others trying to gain qualifications, then an assessor's job could be for you. As an NVQ assessor you will observe candidates at work and look at their portfolios, matching their performance to the national standards required, and giving feedback as necessary. Your report will be read and countersigned by the internal verifier before each candidate completes the units. To become an assessor, you need to prepare your own portfolio of work and demonstrate the level of underpinning knowledge required for NVQ Training and Development Units D32 and D33, plus D34. These will be examined by an internal verifier.
Contact your local NVQ centre. A list of CACHE NVQ centres is available from CACHE, 8 Chequer Street, St Albans, Herts AL1 3XZ (01727 847636, fax 01727 867609, e-mail info@cache.org.uk,website www.cache.org.uk).
Social worker With a CACHE Diploma in Child Care and Education or its equivalent plus at least one year's work experience, you are qualified to undertake the two-year full-time Diploma in Social Work. Social workers with a background in nursery training are particularly suited to jobs in child protection and work with families under stress.
Contact the Information Service, The Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work, Derbyshire House, St Chad's Street, London WC1H 8AD (020 7278 2455, e-mail info-england@ ccetsw.org.uk, website www.ccetsw.org.uk).
Specialist teacher assistant
* If you are already working with children in an educational setting - even in a voluntary capacity - a Specialist Teacher Assistant (STA) course can formalise your skills. Successful completion of the course may count in some way towards higher courses, including teacher training, depending upon the policy of the education institution. All STA courses prepare you to support qualified teachers in numeracy and literacy at Key Stage 1 and some, including the CACHE award, also prepare assistants to work with children at Key Stage 2 - effective from September. STA courses may be run in conjunction with local education authorities or offered independently by further education colleges.
Contact CACHE, as above, the Open University (01908 652309, fax 01908 659143, website www.open.ac.uk)or your local LEA for details.
Speech and language therapist/Speech and language therapist's assistant * Training for a career as a speech and language therapist is by undergraduate or postgraduate degree courses offered at 15 higher education institutions in the UK. Undergraduate courses are three or four years and postgraduate courses are two years. All courses are accredited by their professional body the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and lead to eligibility for state registration.
For a first degree course, the minimum entry qualifications are normally five GCSE and two A-level passes, or three Scottish highers, but most courses require three A-level passes or four highers. Students with GCSE passes in English Language, a second language, mathematics and a science are often at an advantage. Some courses require specific GCSE and A-levels such as English and/or biology. Applications from suitably-qualified mature students are welcome. Evidence of recent study may be required.
Opportunities also exist to work as a speech and language therapist's assistant. An N/SVQ in Care at Level 3 is available, but is not a condition of entry.
Contact the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, 2 White Hart Yard, London SE1 1NX (020 7378 1200, e-mail postmaster@rcslt.org,website www.rcslt.org). Send an SAE for a career information pack.
Teacher
* To become a teacher you need the right combination of qualifications and personal qualities. To enter an initial teacher training (ITT) programme, you must have at least a grade C GCSE in English Language and mathematics or equivalents. If you were born on or after 1 September 1979 and want to teach primary pupils you will also need at least a GCSE Grade C (or equivalent) in a science subject. Whether you wish to train as a primary or secondary teacher, you will need to show how your previous education has given you the foundation to teach the subject in which you intend to specialise. There are no statutory requirements for subject qualifications. ITT providers set their own requirements when looking at your A-levels, degree or other educational qualifications to decide if it would be appropriate for them to train you to teach your chosen subject. You can train to teach any of the subjects included in the National Curriculum - English, mathematics, science, Welsh (in Wales only), design and technology, information technology, history, geography, music, art, physical education, and modern foreign languages (in secondary schools only). You can also train to teach religious education which, though not part of the National Curriculum, is taught to all pupils.
At primary level you will need to be able to teach English, mathematics and science, as well as specialising in at least one National Curriculum subject, or in early years teaching, covering three to eight-year-olds. In both primary and secondary you will also be trained to use information communications technology (ICT) in your teaching. Courses are available across the different age ranges. They are:
* Three to eight, which includes specialist training for nursery and reception, and instead of specialising in a National Curriculum subject you have the option of taking advanced early years studies. Your training will equip you to teach the full primary curriculum up to age eight. Note that you cannot qualify as a teacher of under-fives only.
* Three or five to 11, which enables you to teach across the primary range.
* Seven to 11, which will enable you to teach at the upper end of a primary school.
* Seven to 14, which enables you to teach in both the upper end of a primary school and the lower end of a secondary school.
* Eleven to 16 or 18, to enable you to teach in secondary schools; and 14 to 19-year-olds.
The undergraduate route to becoming a teacher combines your degree studies with qualified teacher status (QTS). The course at a university or college will lead to a degree, usually BEd, BA or BSc, and to QTS. There are more than 50 providers of undergraduate ITT programmes in England and Wales alone. Most of these are for primary teaching.
Applications for undergraduate courses are made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). The deadline for applications through UCAS is 15 December. It is worth applying early for primary school courses as they fill up quickly.
Contact UCAS, Rosehill, New Barn Lane, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL52 3LZ (for application materials 01242 223707, general enquiries for BEd courses 01242 227788, website www.ucas.com).
* To go the postgraduate route, you will need a degree (or equivalent) that gives the necessary foundation for the subject and age-range you want to teach. For both primary and secondary teaching, this generally means a degree relevant to your main subject.
You will also need Grade C GCSE in English Language, mathematics (or equivalents) and a similar qualification in a science subject if you were born on or after 1 September 1979.
Most postgraduate courses are for one full-time academic year; on a primary course you will spend at least 18 weeks in school. There are more than 100 postgraduate courses on offer, almost all of which lead to the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and to QTS.
Contact the Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR), address as for UCAS, as above (01242 544788). For an information pack on teacher training, contact the Teacher Training Agency's teaching information line (0845 6000991, website www.teach-tta.gov.uk/teach).
