Build bright futures

Including your own

At Nescot, our early years and childcare courses help you develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to support children as they grow, learn and explore the world around them. You’ll understand how children develop and, crucially, how you can support them to be happy, healthy and thriving. If you want a career in childcare where you can make a real difference, and have a lot of fun along the way, Nescot is the place to start.

Train to teach

Inspire the next generation

Nescot’s Teacher Training courses are for anyone who wants to teach in further education, sixth forms, adult learning or workplace training. Our courses, from the Level 3 Award in Education and Training to the Level 6 BA (Hons) Education Studies Top-up, are flexible, practical and built around real classroom experience, so you’ll not only learn how to teach, but how to engage, motivate and inspire learners from day one. You’ll gain the recognised qualifications you need, along with the confidence to lead a classroom and share your expertise in a way that sticks. With flexible schedules designed around busy lives, you can train to teach without putting everything else on hold. Start your teaching journey with Nescot and make your knowledge count. Looking to work in a nursery instead? See our early years and childcare courses.

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Early Years
Teacher Training

Early Years

How to become a nursery practitioner or nursery teacher

Want to work in a nursery? Our Level 2 and Level 3 courses qualify you to work as a nursery assistant or nursery practitioner, and the Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification is the one most nurseries ask for. To become a nursery or early years teacher, you’ll usually need a degree with Early Years Teacher Status. Many of our Level 3 students go on to university, including King’s College London, the University of Roehampton and St Mary’s.

Careers in early years

Our Early Years students go on to a wide range of exciting career paths. You could move straight into a role such as nursery or teaching assistant, nanny or playworker, or progress into a career as a children’s nurse, nursery manager or primary school teacher. With opportunities in settings from nurseries and schools to hospitals and family support services, an Early Years qualification opens the door to a rewarding career supporting children’s development at every stage. Or you’ll have the option to take up further study at leading universities, including King’s College London, the University of Roehampton and St Mary’s.

Our staff

Our Early Years tutors are excellent teachers and mentors with a wide breadth of industry experience, including nursery managers, special needs practitioners, primary school learning support and nannying. The quality of teaching in the department has consistently been recognised as good or above.

Course highlights

Gain work experience in an organisation relevant to your area of study, so that you can see for yourself how your skills could fit in different sectors.
Childcare employers frequently send us their vacancies because they want someone who is ‘Nescot qualified’.
Level 3 students get additional qualifications in cooking and paediatric first aid, to increase their employability even further.
Students go on a range of trips throughout the year, including to Thorpe Park and Brighton, to give them an opportunity to practise planning an effective trip.
Students benefit from an annual careers fair, where a range of local employers network with our students, which leads to real job opportunities within the industry.

Group participating in outdoor activity, sawing wood near a small fire.

Students working with dough at a table using bowls and baking ingredients.

Hands using tools to hammer nails into wood outdoors on grass.

Student painting a small object at a desk covered with newspaper.

Students sitting at tables in a classroom, reading and discussing work.

Teacher Training

Careers in teacher training

A teaching qualification opens the door to a wide range of rewarding and flexible career opportunities. You could work in further education colleges, sixth forms or adult learning, teaching subjects linked to your own skills and experience. Many go on to roles as lecturers, trainers or assessors, delivering professional and vocational courses in areas such as business, healthcare, construction or the creative industries. There are also opportunities in workplace training, community education and private training providers, helping people develop new skills and progress in their careers.

Our staff

Nescot’s Teacher Training team have had experience in schools, colleges, corporate training and staff development and with specific community groups. They have specialised expertise across a range of needs, including behavioural and dyslexia. There are very few challenges within teaching that our staff have not met before and they fully understand the demands on the modern practitioner.

Course highlights

Class sizes are small, at around 16 students, so you are guaranteed individual attention from your tutors and have the chance to build working relationships with your classmates.
Our expert tutors will pinpoint the areas you are most challenged by and give you the personal skills and tools to master them. We then encourage you to learn from one another and bring your own experiences to the course using group work sessions, paired work and class discussions.
You will even observe and evaluate one another’s teaching sessions as well as observing talented advanced practitioners in action.
A variety of specialist speakers visit to share their knowledge, and you’ll hear from experts in such fields as Continuing Professional Development and Neuro Linguistic Programming, as well as professionals who support students and teaching like Student Finance and counselling experts.

Tutor standing at the front of a classroom teaching a group of adult learners.

Group of people in a dimly lit fitness studio performing barbell squats on step platforms, with stacked equipment, blue accent lighting, and wall graphics in the background.

Student in a classroom setting demonstrating a blood pressure monitor to another student across a table, with a whiteboard and additional learning materials visible in the background.

Group of people in winter clothing and helmets standing on an indoor ski slope, holding skis in front of a red safety net, with other skiers and snowy slopes visible in the background.

Group of students standing in a sports hall behind a large “Jack Petchey Foundation Panathlon Challenge” banner, with indoor court markings and a Kingston Street Flyers sign visible on the wall.

I initially joined the full-time Level 2 Early Years Practitoner course. Following tutor recommendation, and to enhance my learning, I then joined the Level 3 Early Years Educator Apprenticeship. It proved to be the best route for me, as it combined on-the-job experience with classroom learning. Nescot’s a great place with a wide variety of courses and a close-knit network of people who support each other. The staff are incredible!

Alastair / Early Years Apprentice

Our early years and education courses

Compare our early years, childcare and teacher training courses below, from the Level 1 Health, Social Care and Children and Young People’s Settings course to the Level 3 T Level in Education and Childcare and Level 3 Early Years Educator apprenticeship, plus our teacher training qualification.

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School Leaver 16+

Full Time

Level 1

Level 1 Health, Social Care and Children and Young People’s Settings

This Level 1 course gives you the basic knowledge and confidence needed to work in health, social care or childcare settings, including how to keep children of a variety of ages healthy and safe. It includes a BTEC Level 1 and 2 Cooking Skills qualification and a CACHE Level 1 Certificate in Wellbeing and is designed to lead onto Level 2 study.

In Person

School Leaver 16+

Full Time

Level 2

Level 2 Early Years Practitioners

A one-year full-time childcare course for school leavers, combining three days in college with two days of work placement each week, learning to care for and support children up to the age of eight.

In Person

Adult 19+

Flexible

Level 2

Level 2 Introducing Caring for Children and Young People – Distance Learning

The Level 2 Certificate Introducing Caring for Children and Young People will give learners a good understanding of childcare and education, parenting and babysitting. It will also help them to make an informed choice about working with children and young people.

12 Week(s)

Online

School Leaver 16+

Full Time

Level 3

Level 3 T Level Education and Childcare

T Level programmes are designed to provide progression routes into skilled and technical employment, higher or degree apprenticeships, or university. They offer students a mixture of classroom learning and 'on-the-job' experience during a 45-day industry placement which gives students practical insights into the sector and an opportunity to embed knowledge learned in the classroom.

In Person

Apprenticeship

Part Time

Level 3

Level 3 Apprenticeship – Early Years Educator

Early Years Educators, and other job roles such as nursery nurse and childminders, are highly trained professionals who play a key role in ensuring that young children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. They work in a range of settings including full day care, children's centres, pre-schools, reception classes and as childminders.

In Person

University

Full Time

Level 6

BA (Hons) Education Studies (Top up)

The BA Honours Degree in Education is a top-up programme of 120 credits at Level 6 for those who already hold a foundation degree (such as the existing Foundation Degrees in Education and Training, Early Years, and Supporting Teaching and Learning) or their equivalents at Level 4 & 5 with total credits of 240.

In Person

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