Jobs with children aren’t limited to being a teacher; there are roles in education, healthcare, play work and psychology to name just a few and careers working with children can start straight after school or can be entered after university study. You could enter these roles via an apprenticeship, a vocational course or A-levels.There are plenty of different qualification routes available at all levels for people who wish to work with children, including: NVQs, CACHE qualifications at entry level up to level 5, BTEC National Certificates and Diplomas (levels 1, 2, 3 as well as HNC and HND)Here are a few of the child-related jobs out there and the pathways into them.TeacherTo become a teacher you need to have a degree and to get your qualified teacher status (QTS) – you will also need to have maths, English and science GCSE grade A* - C if you want to be a primary school teacher.Supporting Roles and Nursery WorkThere are a variety of supporting roles in education, such as learning or teaching support assistant that you can access via an advanced apprenticeship. You could also specialise in say supporting physical learning, or supporting the learning of children with disabilities via an apprenticeship.If you want to be a nursery worker there are apprenticeships available at intermediate and advanced level, covering roles such as early years support, nursery nurse and nursery supervisor and these are supported by very good bursaries of up to £3,000.If you want to take the HE route, you could study for a BA Hons in Childhood Studies, after which, if you wanted to you could do a PGCE (post graduate certificate in education) and progress into teaching.PlayworkerYou could undertake an apprenticeship at intermediate or advanced level that covers the role of playworker in a children’s play centre. At intermediate level you could work as an assistant playworker and at advanced level you could be a playworker or senior playworker, supervising a team.
