Early Years Education Bootcamps

Accelerate your progress: This Skills Bootcamp offers you a unique, direct path, to our accelerated level 3 early years educator apprenticeship or job, saving you up to 6 months of learning time and helping you start your dream role much faster.

Gain your paediatric first aid qualification, which is essential to work in an early years setting. The cost of this will be covered by Realise.

Support with your DBS application: We will handle the costs and paperwork for your DBS application, helping you to focus on your learning.

Personalised support: Benefit from personalised support and guidance throughout your course, ensuring you have all of the resources and assistance you need to succeed.

Hear from Ali, who completed the course, “Starting the Skills Bootcamp changed everything. It was a six-week online course and gave me all the skills I needed to start working in the early years sector and it certainly helped my confidence when I went to the interview.”

Click below to find out more.

This comprehensive Skills Bootcamp, delivered by Devon County Council, provides a series of modules specifically designed to enhance the understanding and support of children’s play. The play courses are structured into five key modules, each offering in-depth insights and practical knowledge.

1. Understanding Children’s Play: This module covers the definition of play, its importance, the play cycle, play deprivation, brain development, and neurodiversity. It aims to provide a foundational understanding of why play is crucial for children’s development.
2. Supporting Children’s Play: Participants will learn about the role and characteristics of a playworker, intervention styles, risky play, and the voice of the child. This module emphasizes the importance of supporting and facilitating children’s play experiences.
3. Environments for Play: This module focuses on creating effective play spaces, understanding play types, affordances, and the playwork curriculum. It also includes mapping children’s use of space and the concept of loose parts to enhance play environments.
4. Mental Health and Wellbeing: This module integrates mental health first aid with child mental health, providing strategies to support children’s mental well-being through play. It highlights the importance of mental health in the context of play and overall development.
5. Legislation of Play: Participants will gain knowledge about relevant legislation such as the UNCRC, KCSiE, Health and Safety, Equalities Act, and Children’s Act. This module ensures that play practices are aligned with legal requirements and inclusive principles.

The Skills Bootcamp also covers Safeguarding, Child Protection and Paediatric First Aid. Designed to equip learners with essential knowledge to protect children and ensuring they are well-prepared to handle emergencies.

The course is delivered through a mix of virtual sessions, e-learning, and site visits, ensuring a flexible and comprehensive learning experience.

To apply please contact the team at playworkbootcamp@devon.gov.uk

Fast track to a Level 3 Early Years Educator apprenticeship!

Over the course you will take part in fun learning sessions designed to provide you with an introduction to childcare and help you to understand more about how children learn and develop. You will spend one day a week on a placement with a local Nursery where you get the opportunity to test your practical skills and begin to form relationships with what will hopefully become the setting for your Level 3 Early Years Educator Accelerated Apprenticeship. You will also complete Pediatric First Aid certification, crucial for working within childcare.

Topics covered:

• Introduction to childcare,
• Safeguarding and Health & Safety legislations and guidance,
• Supporting Equality Diversity and Inclusion,
• An introduction to theorists and philosophical approaches to how children learn and develop, and their influence on practice,
• Plus how to support children’s transition to school, including phonics – Letters and Sounds.

We offer you the opportunity to complete online courses to support your continuing professional development in Food Hygiene and Food Allergens. You will also complete certified Level 1 Makaton training. Enjoy personalised support and guidance throughout your course, ensuring you have all the resources and help you need to excel. We will also support by helping with CV-writing and mock-interviews to help you practice and prepare. When you finish, you’ll have a fast track to our Level 3 Early Years Educator apprenticeship, cutting down your learning time by up to six months and getting you into your dream job faster.

Click below to find out more.