Diploma of Early Childhood and Care
Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care
Overview
VET Qualification Code: CHC30121
This qualification reflects the role of educators in early childhood education and care who work in regulated children’s education and care services in Australia. Educators at this level are responsible for designing and implementing curriculum that meets the requirements of an approved learning framework and for maintaining compliance in other areas of service operations. They use specialised knowledge and analyse and apply theoretical concepts to diverse work situations. They may have responsibility for supervision of volunteers or other educators.
Early childhood educators work in long day care centres, family day care, pre-schools, or kindergartens.
To achieve this qualification, the individual must have completed a total of least 280 hours of work in a regulated children’s education and care service in Australia as detailed in the Assessment Requirements of units of competency. The total number of hours may be applied collectively across all units of competency that include the requirement for workplace hours.
No occupational licensing, certification or specific legislative requirements apply to this qualification at the time of publication.
Under the Education and Care Services National Law (2011) the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) publishes lists of approved early childhood education and care qualifications and information regarding regulatory requirements here: www.acecqa.gov.au
Target Market
This course is ideally suited to:
- People who want to work in the early childhood education and care industry:
- who hold a CHC30121 Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care or
- CHC30113 Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care.
- moving into this industry from another occupation/job.
Students may also be already working or upgrading their previous qualification and in this case would be recommended for our RPL pathway.
Career Pathway
Students who complete this course can expect to gain work as an educator, room leader, educational leader, assistant director or director in an approved early childhood service.
The further study pathways available to learners who undertake this qualification include:
- CHC62015 Advanced Diploma of Community Sector Management
- Bachelor of Early Childhood Education.
Course Duration
Entry Requirements
Entry to this qualification is open to individuals who:
- hold a CHC30121 Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care or
- CHC30113 Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care.
In addition to the above, EduNex Training requires that students:
- are over 18 years’ of age
- provide a current Working with Children Check with no relevant offenses.
- attend a selection interview as part of the enrolment process and demonstrate an interest in, knowledge of, and suitability for work in the childcare industry.
- have a suitable level of language, learning and numeracy skills to ensure EduNex is able to support them to complete the course*
- are willing and able to seek a work placement for 280 hours at a regulated education and care service. This access to a regulated education and care service need not necessarily be secured at course commencement as the work placement can be completed at different times during the course, however, it must be arranged to fulfil course assessment requirements.
To approve a student workplace, EduNex Training requires that workplaces:
- are an ACEQA registered education and care provider
- provide all necessary documents, equipment and facilities as listed on the Work Placement Agreement (and in the Equipment & Facilities section of this Training and Assessment Strategy).
- provide Supervision by staff member/s at all times who:
- hold this qualification, equivalent or higher
- are willing to provide feedback to students, sign off on completed hours and supervisor reports and liaise with EduNex about student progress
- provide access for students to work with:
- at least three different babies and toddlers of varying age
- at least three children of varying ages between 0–5
- agree to provide the student with sufficient hours to complete a minimum of 280 over the duration of the course
- agree to ensure that no more than 2 students per room/supervisor at a time (during any given scheduled shift)
Course Structure
Test Type
Score or Level
Course Status
Qualification
Current, Release 1.0, Release date 20/07/2021
Assessment Process
Units are assessed individually and in clusters via a range of assessment methods as indicated in the CHC50121 Delivery and Assessment Schedule.
Assessment requirements for each cluster or unit are outlined in the Student Assessment Booklet.
Assessment is typically conducted through:
- Completion of projects that incorporate the requirements of the workplace that may include providing a written report of what happened, a review of the process, and portfolio documents. Some examples of projects included in the course are:
- Observation of children over a period of time
- Developing and implementing experiences
- Preparing a nutrition plan
- Delivering presentations
- Conducting research at the work placement and answering questions in response to the research
- Completion of set and guided journal entries based on work experience and logging of work hours
- Response to written scenarios
- Role plays conducted between the assessor and the student during workplace visits or during the webinars
- Observation of skills by the assessor in the workplace completing set tasks
- Third party (supervisor) confirmation of consistent workplace performance
- Others, as outlined in the CHC50121- Delivery and Assessment Schedule.
At the beginning of each cluster, the trainer/ assessor will go through the arrangements for assessment with each student and provide details about the assessment requirements including due dates.
Assessment Methods
The following assessment methods are used for some or all units, please refer to the Delivery Sequence and Methods section of this Training & Assessment Strategy for details of specific units and tasks.
Definitions of each of these methods has been drawn from the ASQA Guide for developing assessment Tools (page 5), https://www.asqa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net2166/f/Guide_to_developing_assessment_tools.pdf
- Direct observation – this will occur in the simulated environment or at workplace during the work placement visits by the trainer/assessor.
- Product based methods –these generally reports, reflections, projects, presentations and photos of the environments that have been set up, etc.
- Portfolio – workplace evidence in the form of documentation filled out by the student will be sighted.
- Questioning –this will be a combination of written questions that will be answered in the student’s own time and verbal questions asked after observations
- Third party evidence. This is used only for supplementary evidence; third party evidence providers do not make decisions of competency. Throughout the course the student’s workplace supervisor will provide third party evidence about the student’s abilities and duties.
Students will participate in a total of 1290 hours of training, learning and assessment activities.
This is broken up into 360 hours of webinars and 280 hours of work placement which is split over 4 blocks. In addition, the students will be required to complete 14.5 hours of self-study each week which may involve reading their textbooks, resource materials, discussing their work with their trainer/assessor and/or other students and completing assessment tasks.
Academic Entry Requirements
Entry to this qualification is open to individuals who:
- hold a CHC30121 Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care or
- CHC30113 Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care.
In addition to the above, EduNex Training requires that students:
- are over 18 years’ of age
- provide a current Working with Children Check with no relevant offenses.
- attend a selection interview as part of the enrolment process and demonstrate an interest in, knowledge of, and suitability for work in the childcare industry.
- have a suitable level of language, learning and numeracy skills to ensure EduNex is able to support them to complete the course*
- are willing and able to seek a work placement for 280 hours at a regulated education and care service. This access to a regulated education and care service need not necessarily be secured at course commencement as the work placement can be completed at different times during the course, however, it must be arranged to fulfil course assessment requirements.
To approve a student workplace, EduNex Training requires that workplaces:
- are an ACEQA registered education and care provider
- provide all necessary documents, equipment and facilities as listed on the Work Placement Agreement (and in the Equipment & Facilities section of this Training and Assessment Strategy).
- provide Supervision by staff member/s at all times who:
- hold this qualification, equivalent or higher
- are willing to provide feedback to students, sign off on completed hours and supervisor reports and liaise with EduNex about student progress
- provide access for students to work with:
- at least three different babies and toddlers of varying age
- at least three children of varying ages between 0–5
- agree to provide the student with sufficient hours to complete a minimum of 160 over the duration of the course
- agree to ensure that no more than 2 students per room/supervisor at a time (during any given scheduled shift)
Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN)
As well as meeting the entry requirements listed above, students will be required to achieve a satisfactory result in a language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) assessment that will be conducted during the application process. The required level for this qualification is
- Oral Communication: ACSF level 4
- Reading Writing and Learning: ACSF level 4
- Numeracy: ACSF level 3
The LLN assessment includes a written test and interview to complete the verbal component of the test. The LLN test assists EduNex Training to assess whether or not students LLN skills and are at a level suited to the course requirements. It also assists our trainers to prepare individual learning plans for each successful applicant where skill weaknesses are identified.
Pre Training Review Missing in TAS and LLN Test
As well as meeting the entry requirements listed above, students will be required to achieve a satisfactory result in a language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) assessment that will be conducted during the application process. The required level for this qualification is
- Oral Communication: ACSF level 4
- Reading Writing and Learning: ACSF level 4
- Numeracy: ACSF level 3
The LLN assessment includes a written test and interview to complete the verbal component of the test. The LLN test assists EduNex Training to assess whether or not students LLN skills and are at a level suited to the course requirements. It also assists our trainers to prepare individual learning plans for each successful applicant where skill weaknesses are identified.
Gap Training
Record Keeping
You must submit records of interviews and assessment outcomes to the office after each conversation or meeting during the RPL process. On completion of assessment, the following items must be returned to the candidate’s file for archiving:
- RPL Assessor Record
- RPL Candidate Kit
- RPL Third Party Report checklists
All evidence items submitted by the candidate.
The candidate will then be issued with a qualification or statement of attainment.