Health visitor's assistant
* 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, though policies vary in different health trusts.
Contact your local community NHS Trust.
Hospital play specialist
* Hospital play specialists fulfil a vital role for children and their families during a stay in hospital. They provide therapeutic play programmes for children individually and in groups, in ward-based playrooms, outpatients clinics and intensive care units. They work closely with other members of the professional team, using play to prepare children for hospital procedures, contributing to clinical judgements through their play-based observations of sick children.
There are 15 colleges running the Edexcel Professional Development Certificate in Hospital Play Specialism (HPS), though 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.
Contact Jackie Ellis of the NationalAssociation of Hospital Play Staff (NAHPS), Floodgate, Fortygreen, Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 1XS (write enclosing a large SAE, website www.nahps.org.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. No extra qualifications are required beyond a CACHE Diploma in Nursery Nursing or BTec Level 3 Diploma, but experience with newborns is essential.
Many nanny agencies advertise these jobs. See the Nursery World 'Jobs With Families' maternity nursing section for specific posts.
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 Europe, the US, Canada and the Far East. 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 are two A-levels or seven or eight GCSEs. But students meeting other criteria may be accepted without these paper qualifications following an interview. There is a minimum age of 18 but no maximum age.
Contact the Maria Montessori Training Organisation.
* The Montessori Centre International in London runs courses including a one-year full-time or part-time Early Childhood course to prepare graduates to work with children aged between two-and-a-half and six. All candidates are assessed for entry on individual merit 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.
Curriculum subjects include education of the senses, practical life activities, numeracy and literacy, and cultural and creative studies. The diploma is recognised internationally.
The course is also offered to postgraduates and people with the CACHE Diploma in Child Care and Education. The course content is the same but the assessment is more challenging, reflecting students' previous academic experience. It is available in September for full-or part-time entry and February for part-time entry.
The Infant Toddler course, 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, and developmentally-appropriate activities for babies and toddlers.
Contact the Montessori Centre International.
Nurse
* Two routes lead to registration as a qualified nurse - a diploma in higher education or a degree in nursing studies. Programmes are delivered by higher education institutions and practice is gained in 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 Child Care and Education or the BTec national diploma. The CACHE Diploma in Child Care and Education 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 possible to work with babies and children in a hospital setting without committing yourself to the intensive three-year full-time course a nursing qualification requires. Children's hospitals, and paediatric and maternity units all recruit nursery nurses as support staff.
South Bank University, Hertfordshire University and Portsmouth University all run a four-year degree course combining nursing training with social work related to learning disability support.
Contact NHS Careers.
* The UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting sets the minimum standard for the three-year pre-registration diploma in higher education. But each higher education institution can set its own entry criteria over and above minimum requirements.
Contact the Nursing and Midwifery Admissions Service.
NVQ assessor
* If you are at the stage in your 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 successfully completes the units. To become an assessor, you need to prepare your own portfolio of work and demonstrate the knowledge required for NVQ Training and Development Units A1/A2 to be an assessor and V1 to be an internal verifier.
Contact your local NVQ centre.
The Council for Awards in Children's Care and Education (CACHE) has a list of CACHE NVQ centres.
Social worker
* If you have 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.
Contact Information Services, The General Social Care Council.
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 sharpen and 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. STA courses may be run in conjunction with local education authorities or offered independently by further education colleges.
Contact CACHE, the Open University, or your Local Education Authority.
Speech and language therapist/assistant
* Training to become a speech and language therapist is by undergraduate or postgraduate degree courses offered at 15 higher education institutions. Undergraduate courses take three or four years and postgraduate courses two years.
All courses are jointly accredited by their professional body the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and the Health Professions Council, and lead to eligibility for state registration.
For a first degree course, the 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.
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.
Teacherl To become a teacher you need the right combination of qualifications and personal qualities. To enter an initial Teacher Training (ITT) programme, you need 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 you intend to specialise in. 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: l 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, enabling you to teach across the primary range.
* Seven to 11, enabling you to teach at the upper end of a primary school.
* Seven to 14, enabling you to teach in both the upper end of a primary school and the lower end of a secondary school.
* 11 to 16 or 18, enabling you to teach in secondary schools and also 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 QTS. In England and Wales alone there are more than 50 providers of undergraduate ITT programmes.
Applications for undergraduate courses are made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). The timetable for applications through UCAS is from 1 September 2002 to 15 January 2003, but it is worth applying early for primary courses as they fill up quickly.
Contact UCAS.
* There is also now a two-year Foundation Degree course, which has been designed as a route into higher education for people whith experience of working with children but who lack the traditional A-level qualifications normally needed to embark on a degree and who want to study while still working.
Contact the National Learning Advice Line on 0800 100 900, website www.learndirect.co.uk, or the Foundation Degree website at www.foundationdegree.org.
* To go the postgraduate route, you 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.