Change of career - advice and experiences in studying a Diploma or Bachelors

[Rudi789]

Hi everyone,

I am after people's experiences in switching to a career in early education in Queensland. My end goal is to work as an educator or ECT in Kindy. A little background - I have no experience working in childcare but I have 2 children of my own (4 and 2 year old). I absolutely adore and enjoy the Kindy age, focusing on play based learning experiences and can really see myself working there in a long term career.

So the next thing is to decide which course or pathway to take.

Option 1: I can start a Bachelor of Early Education (0-8 years) at my local university which allows me to complete the degree in just over 5 years studying online which includes 120 days placement. It has been years since I studied (I do hold a bachelors degree from 2007) so I guess my hesitation is how demanding a degree is and fitting this in with young children? Can you start working as an assistant to gain real life experience as soon as you start the degree? Is there a high demand for new graduates in an ECT role?

Option 2: Currently QLD Tafe is offering fee free courses for the Cert III (1 years) and Diploma in Early Ed (18 months). Is it a lot less demanding than a Uni degree? Is it more common to progress from a Cert III to Dip to Bachelors to become an ECT, and gain experience along the way? I read the Diploma will credit 1 year off the degree but wondering if I should just bite the bullet and start the Bachelors. Is this the less risky way to get my foot in the door and to see if I REALLY want this career change?

I'm not quite sure what I'm asking but would love to hear other people's experiences especially with juggling studying, gaining experience and family life.

[Lorina]

In my opinion i would suggest you start off with a cert 3 qualification then move onto the diploma or even directly to the degree. There are a couple of reasons why:

1) You cannot complete the Diploma qualification without completing the cert 3 Qualification first.

2) When working in a setting once you complete your cert 3 qualification, if you decide to go directly to the degree, once you have enrolled in the degree you can be considered a diploma qualified educator since you have already completed the cert 3 qualification.

If you decide to enrol in the Diploma itself you can be counted as a Diploma since you have completed your cert 3 qualification. If you don't have a cert 3 qualification, once you complete 30% of your degree then you will be considered as a Diploma educator.


3) To be considered an of a service from 2023 you will have had to of completed the full course.

So, in retrospect if you decide to go directly to the degree you will have to wait until you complete 30% of the units to be considered a Diploma qualified educator or you can begin as a cert 3 qualification dip your feet in the water and see how you actually like it. You will also be able to gain alot of experience which i think is necessary as you learn.

There are a lot of rules, policies, regulations, laws, frameworks, that you will need to become familiar with and the cert 3 is the best way to get started.

Thats my opinion.

Hope this helps!


Lorina