Nanny, nursery, childminder, teacher? Opinions needed

[pinkdaffodil23]

Hello everyone
I have been working as a nanny for the past 4 years. September 2017 my job will come to an end and I'm also hoping to be starting my own family by then.
I'm a huge planner and I like to know what I'm doing. I have been looking into what id like to do when my job comes to an end. Even though its a while away I'm preparing myself now so I can do any extra training/gain experience etc.
What did you do after nannying? How did it work out?

Ive been looking at becoming a childminder or being a teaching assistant and then doing my pgce to become a teacher. I'm also very ambitious and would love to set up my own pre-school but I I think that may be to ambitious haha. I worry about the childminder or nursery idea as you cant guarantee a wage and I need to earn enough to pay the bills. Working in a school would mean that I have to put any children I may have in childcare.

I also love the idea of working in a children's hospice or being a midwife but they both need going back to uni for more than a year an I don't think I want to commit to that. I have my ba honours degree in early childhood studies.

What other areas did you move into within the childcare field? May give me more ideas to think about :)

I am leaving my job in august/September and am planning my next steps. I had planned to start a degree via the OU but then DH got a job that requires us to relocate and then i got pregnant so I'm going back to education in the next couple of years to study psychology, the eventual aim being working with children in cahms or research.

With your degree would you qualify for EY teacher status? It could be worth going for that. A friend has a similar degree and worked in nurseries until this year, she's now left childcare, I believe that feeling taken advantage of due to her degree was a significant factor, she was often put in charge but not paid that well for it or technically wasnt even in those roles.

I totally get the resistance to put a child of your own in childcare though, we've just decided to delay me starting my until baby is coming up to two (September 2018) rather than next year as I just can't do it. I'm now going to go down the brick and mortar uni route instead of OU. Between one and two is my favourite age range and I feel like i can't justify missing it when I've helped bring other people's children through that age! The access course that I'm looking at is three days a week in school hours so that would be great for me, it still means that I can see baby the majority of the week between 2 and 3 years old.

I have looked at doing the early years teacher. I was hoping to do it this year but sadly I couldn't work my current job around it. I may go and do it next September but I'm in two minds to do that or do my PGCE if I'm going to do a course.
I would really love to go into teaching but I know there is so much work to it with all the planning and extra hours. Working as a play worker in some of the childrens hospices is also very appealing to me.

I know what you mean about the age between 1 and 2 I'm not even pregnant yet but I'm so scared already of working them precious years away and missing so much. But ive got to pay the bills some how.

I wish you all the best in your studies.

Sorry to hijack your thread. But I'm in a similar position with wanting to plan ahead. I have a similar degree. Do you know how you'd go about being an early years teaching? I'd have thought you needed a pgce but am I wrong?
Secondly, do you know much about being a play worker in a children's hospice? That also appeals to me!
Sorry I'm not much use overall! I'm just in a very similar position to you and don't want to waste a year if I could have been studying

Hi Blublutoo
You can go back to university and do the early years teacher training course. If you go on your local university website and search through the early years courses you should come across something worded similar to that.
From what I have read you don't need any other qualifications to be a play worker. Just experience working with children, planning a wide range of activities etc.

Thanks pinkdaffodil that's very helpful. You're giving me some ideas! Now to put them into practice

I looked at play working but without a degree (I dropped out of my early years degree as it wasn't for me at the time!), I was looking in hospitals rather than hospices and they seemed to want a level 2 or 3 in play work regardless of any other relevant qualifications, but they were happy for you to do it on the job. I'm not sure if that was set in stone though as I remember calling to query it as I have the CYPW level 3 and the recruitment person I spoke to wasn't really sure why that wouldn't count and thought that it may just be a mistake in the ads! Either way a level 2 or 3 isn't too difficult to complete in the workplace!

Thanks for the info :) when I searched play worker jobs they didn't seem massively paid (not in comparison to nannying )
Are they better paid in hospitals ?

They were not well paid at all when I looked last year. Bit it looked like an interesting job :)