Childcare & Early Years

About Early Years

Nurturing, caring and a genuine interest in encouraging children to flourish and grow. Could these qualities describe you? A career in the Early Years sector working with young children and their families will give you the space to fulfil your passion for supporting early learning and providing fun activities that enable exploration and development.

From the moment a baby is born they are actively learning about themselves and the world around them. Each child is unique with different needs. Research shows that the first five years of children’s lives are the most important for laying the foundations for their learning and ongoing development. You could be the difference to their later lives, nurturing active young minds in safe enabling environments and giving access to high quality early years experiences, so the difficult transition into school can be much easier. You have the chance to support babies, toddlers and pre-school children as they learn, develop and prepare for school, as you too grow in experience and confidence.

Plenty of routes are available for you if you want to work with children – from childminder to nanny to nursery manager. You could become a youth worker or play worker in breakfast and after school clubs or holiday play schemes. If you have a passion and dedication to early years education you could be supporting in schools, teaching in primary schools or providing children with a safe place to play in a crèche.

If you enjoy working with children and take pride in each individual child’s wellbeing and achievements, you will be helping to ensure they reach their maximum potential. You will laugh, smile and your day might be just as fun for you as it is for the children! Immense satisfaction of seeing children develop skills and knowledge that they will use throughout their entire lives makes Early Years an exciting and extremely rewarding career for you to pursue.

So browse our Early Years and Childcare courses and discover the amazing work experience opportunities available to you during your time at college.

Here’s why you should apply now:

• Great work experience opportunities in the Childcare and Early Years industries to prepare you for your career and university
• Visit the Black Country Living Museum for a Victorian classroom experience – comparing today’s schools to the past
• Explore the Science Gardens and interactive games at the Thinktank in Birmingham
• End of year trips to places like Disneyland Paris and Italy
• Team building exercises solving challenging puzzles with an escape room experience!
• See a pantomime at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton, with activities linked to the show