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Anyone doing the CACHE diploma in childcare ????

18 replies

nutcracker · 20/05/2005 14:20

Anyone doing this, or thinking of doing it ??

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Aero · 20/05/2005 14:26

Used to be known as NNEB nutty - I did it years ago!! (showing my age now, lol), why?

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nutcracker · 20/05/2005 14:26

I remember it as nneb too. Have to go out and get kids now, mind if i explain later ??

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Aero · 20/05/2005 14:28

no worries - I'm off to get mine too.

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nutcracker · 20/05/2005 16:32

Right ok, am back now and will tyr and explain......apologies if you feel the need to doze off half way though but i do tend to waffle.

When I left school I wanted to do the CACHE thingy or nneb as it was then, but the college i lived by had just started a new chidlcare course and people were being told the nneb was full and signed up for the new one.
The new one however was crap, lots of tutors who didn't know their arses from their elbows etc etc. Anyway out of 25 students only 5 completed the course, i wasn't one of them.
This sept i am due to go back to college to do an access to nursing course, 1 day a week over 2 years. Problem is that i'm not 100% sure that it is the right thing to do mainly because it limits my options, should i change my mind on careers.
I think I want to do childrens nursing but am having days where I am not sure. If i do the access course and at the end i've changed my mind then I have all i'll have is a route into uni for nursing or midwifery and nothing else.
So, a very good friend suggested that seeing as I was also interested in teaching, that I did the CACHE instead because it takes the same length of time as the access course although it is full time, and I could still apply to uni for nursing at the end of it if i still wanted to BUT if i had changed my mind I could also use it to get into teaching or just work as a nursery nurse, teaching assistant etc. Basically it seems that if i did that instead, i would have more options should i have the wibblies about what i want to do.

So basically I was wondering if anyone had done the CACHE and what they thought of my idea.

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LIZS · 20/05/2005 16:47

I think it is great that you are looking into this again. However to play devil's advocate, you should perhaps consider the following,

  • would you be able to get onto the same level of nursing course if you decided to in the end ? I'd have thought the access course would focus more specifically on medical/social aspects as opposed to learning/child development and perhaps enable you to get credits for some parts of the nursing course or you may have to take extra courses with the CACHE level entry.( Not that I have actually investigated you understand !)

  • full time seems a big commitment with young kids, coordinating lectures, school/nursery hours and transport, which I seem to recall was quite a hurdle before.

    Hope you find a way to do the course you'd like to .
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lunavix · 20/05/2005 16:49

nutcracker - you can do a general access course which doesn't limit your admission to uni

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nutcracker · 20/05/2005 16:58

Lunavix _ At my local college you can't do a general access course, only access to health and access to teaching and access to police.

LIZS - I know what you mean about the course cintent and had wondered that myself, BUT I think that because I would be a mature student and I would be applying for child nursing the cache would be enough as it is evidence of recent relevant study but I am going to email the uni and check this.

The course is full time yep but the hours are school hours so no need for after school care etc.
I know what you mean though and tbh I am totally unsure.

Could drive myself round the bend with all this. I would be a career advisors nightmare

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SoftFroggie · 20/05/2005 17:16

I have a CACHE student doing a placement in my home at the moment. She's an 18 yr old living with mum and dad with no responsibilities except a Sat and Sun job, and has found it VERY hard to keep up with all the assignments and had got very behind. Also, I would find some of the course contect annoying as a parent - making sandwiches interesting for children, for example, and you'd have to do placements in school / nursery / home to get you practice in how to change a nappy, which I suspect you could do with your eyes closed. So would you manage to do the assignments? It would be better to start a course you can finish than start it and find yourself struggling...

If you want to do teaching after a CACHE course, I would guess you'd still need GCSE english and maths, do you have those?

There are, as you know, a big range of careers within nursing, so you still have some flexibility after the access to nursing - e.g. to do children's nursing.

Best wishes - I just know how hard my student has foudn the course!

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nutcracker · 20/05/2005 17:20

The cache is advertised as being for mature students though at my college.

So if i wanted to get into childcare first, how would i go about???? I have loked into doing an nvq but you have to be working in a chidcare setting whilst you do the course and I haven't managed to find one single nursery that will accept an unqualified person. I found 2 that were ofering trainee places, but one said I was too old and the other only offered £75 a week and I can't afford to pay for childcare for a full week on that.

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Pinotmum · 20/05/2005 17:36

Have you tried your local pre-school/playgroup. I am going on the Cache Level 2 - Cert in Pre-school Practise and a placement at a pre-school is required. I work for one already (12 hrs per week) and so long as you are committed to the training they will consider unqualified persons. The money is never great though as these are basically charity/community run.

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nutcracker · 20/05/2005 17:38

Well thats the prob, the wages as an unqualified person are bad and i couldn't afford childcare for ds then.


All the ad's for nurseries, playgroups, before and after school etc round here state must be a minimum of nvq 2 or nneb/cache trained.

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Pinotmum · 20/05/2005 17:43

Can you bring him with you. My local pre-school has several mums with pre-schoolers who bring them in with them. I guess they pay something towards it.

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nutcracker · 20/05/2005 17:44

Yes thats a good idea, will investigate that, thankyou

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Pinotmum · 20/05/2005 17:47

The benefit of a pre-school placement is that it is only about 2.5 hours per session with maybe an extra 30 mins each side for tidying up/setting out. It seems to work fine for the girls I know .

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nutcracker · 20/05/2005 17:48

Think i'll ring the childcare info place and ask for some lists of playgroups.

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SoftFroggie · 20/05/2005 17:52

hope i didn't sound brusque - i mean to be helpful. if it's for mature students i'd guess they'll realise you can make a sandwich!

best wishes with whatever you choose.

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Pinotmum · 20/05/2005 17:54

Oh just wanted to add that the course I'm about to do is 1 and 1/2 days per week over 1 year and is being run through the local Institute of Adult Education not the Technical College (whose course is 15 hrs per week). It is feasible to get a job as a classroom assistant with this type of qualification (my friend just has) and further on the job training is then offered. Good luck, it's a headache isn't it

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lunavix · 20/05/2005 19:04

nutcracker - you could also work as a childminders assistant couldn't you? Then you could possibly discuss taking him with?

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