ECT applying for jobs

[mirrorreflex]

Hello,

To provide some background I completed a Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood, so I have an equivalent to a bachelor but with only one year study and I had no previous experience prior to my studies.

After graduating I got a job at a childcare centre as an ECT and found that there was a complete lack of support. My mentor did not mentor me and I was not giving any training beyond 5 mins of learning how to log in to the computer. I was also sick for about a week during that time. As a result of all this I was terminated after 3 weeks and the manager could not provide a specific reason besides 'I was not a good fit'.

I have since realised that there is a huge gap in what I should know and what my course covered, because I have seen some of my friend's workload for their Diploma and have seen that they actually cover rules and regulations in detail, whereas my course didn't. Also I have done some relief work in council kindergardens since my termination and have actually began to pick up some of the rules and regulations.

I am considering working at a lower level position such a certificate or diploma level to get experiences, but I am concerned that I would not get the opportunity to do these positions as they would not hire me. I have heard that the higher the qualification you have the more they have to pay you (I'm not 100% sure this is true though), which would make them less likely to hire an experienced person who costs more.

Alternatively, I might find it easier to get an ECT job because there is less competition, but I am scared on a repeat of what happened in my last job.

My questions are therefore:
1. Do you get paid more if you have a Bachelor equivalent but are applying for lower positions?
2. How can I get the opportunity to get a diploma or cert level job?
3. Which type of ECEC setting should I be looking into if I want to provided with good support?/ Is this lack of support common in the profession or was this just a bad centre manager?
4. What type of questions can I ask in an ECEC interview to find out if they support graduates.