BTEC level 3 in health and social care for sen classroom assistant etc

[silvijamck]

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone has any advice. I have 2 autistic children with various SEN. I am 35 and was a stay at home parent for over 11 years. Now I would like to think about continuing my education. I work as a volunteer classroom assistant in my sons school and years ago I worked in a nursing home as a care assistant. I am thinking about going to do level 3 in health and social care instead of doing a classroom assistants course as I think its much more versatile given the fact that you can work as a SEN classroom assistant with health and social care qualification. Anyone done it? Can you tell me what it entails, is it hard is it a worthwhile qualification to have? Many thanks

I've not done it but I have taught it.

It's 2 years full time, but you can do it over a longer period in some collages.

It has minimal exams and is mostly course work. One unit is a work placement so you already have that sorted, you can use your volunteer work for that.

There are some compulsory modules and some optional, but they are optional for the college to choose not the student.

A lot of people find the anatomy and physiology unit hard but you really want to include it as it opens doors if you want to go to uni at a later date, eg if you wanted to go into nursing they would require that unit.

A lot of the assignments depend on the college and teacher. I have as many practical things as possible, so my ideal assessment for one of the health and safety requirements is to create a disaster zone in a clinical area and have student list the hazards. I trail cable across the bed, put fake poo on the floor. Some places don't have a clinical area so sometimes you might have to write an essay instead.