Education will always be essential, offering a dynamic and ever-evolving field with diverse career pathways. All that’s left is to take the first step toward making a lasting impact.
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What can I study?
Caring for Children and Young People Level 2
This course will teach you how to protect children and young people from various unsafe situations.
Length: 12 Weeks
Study: Online Learning
Location: Online
Principles of Working with Individuals with Learning Difficulties Level 2
This is a fantastic 12-week course for anyone working with individuals who have learning disabilities.
Length: 12 Weeks
Study: Online Learning
Location: Online
Understanding Autism Level 2
If you work with autistic people, or if someone you know is autistic, this course is a great way to increase your knowledge about the condition.
Length: 12 Weeks
Study: Online Learning
Location: Online
Understanding Autism Level 3
The Level 3 Certificate in Understanding Autism is designed for learners who want to increase their knowledge and understanding of the condition and the challenges and strengths that autistic people may experience.
Length: 16 Weeks
Study: Online Learning
Location: Online
Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health Level 2
The Level 2 online course in Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health will enable you to protect children
Length: 12 Weeks
Study: Online Learning
Location: Online
Understanding Safeguarding and Prevent Level 2
The purpose of this qualification is to support anyone who is responsible for the safeguarding of people and for helping to prevent radicalisation
Length: 12 Weeks
Study: Online Learning
Location: Online
Understanding Specific Learning Difficulties Level 2
If you're looking to improve your understanding and awareness of learning difficulties, this is the ideal course for you.
Length: 12 Weeks
Study: Online Learning
Location: Online
Contact the Online Learning Team
distancelearningiag@westlancs.ac.uk
01695 52419
Meet our Students
Petya
Caring for Children and Young People Level 2I'm a parent who wants to learn more and provide the best possible support for my children. I want to continue learning, develop myself personally, and one day grow professionally as well. When I started the course, my goal was to better understand young children, become a better person and a better parent, and learn new things that I didn't know before. I found the first topic particularly interesting, and the information was easy to understand. There was always support available whenever I needed it. First and foremost, I'm a parent, and what I've learnt will help me become a better one. I want to keep learning, and when I feel more confident, I would like to try a new job. For now, I just want to continue developing my knowledge. The course has been brilliant, flexible, and easy to fit around my schedule when I have the time to study.
Paige
Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health Level 2I enrolled on this course to build my confidence in the field I want to pursue and to take a step in the right direction towards achieving my goals. The course content and teaching materials were extremely well written and presented, making the information easy to understand while keeping me engaged and motivated to complete the course in a timely manner. My tutor, Kate, was amazing and incredibly supportive throughout, always available to answer any questions or concerns I had. The course has helped build my confidence significantly, particularly as I aspire to become a children's counsellor. It gave me a much better understanding of mental health in young people, including how children can show signs of mental health challenges without verbally communicating them. I also developed my ability to recognise and identify indicators that a child may be struggling with their mental health. The resources were easy to access, highly informative and encouraged me to continue learning, further increasing my motivation to pursue my future career goals.
Kimberley
Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health Level 2I completed this course while working full time, as I wanted to gain a better understanding of the subject and expand my knowledge. I found the course content to be very detailed, clear and easy to read, which made learning both enjoyable and accessible. Although the qualification is not directly related to my current role, I found the knowledge gained extremely valuable. Conor was a great tutor and the feedback provided throughout the course was always thorough and helpful. Overall, it was a fantastic learning experience, and I would highly recommend the course to friends and family.
Gavin
Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health Level 2I have worked in health and wellbeing, lecturing, business and local government, and I love helping and educating people of all ages, especially young people. The course content allowed me to process information methodically in manageable sections and at a pace that suited my learning style. My tutor was excellent, providing support while also allowing me complete autonomy over my learning and assessments. There was never any pressure to change my learning plan, despite completing the original plan quickly. The feedback I received was relevant, interesting and helped to develop my understanding, while also suggesting further research and ideas that I could explore if I wished. I found all of the resources useful and, by the time I completed the course, I felt my confidence and personal development had grown significantly. The experience has encouraged me to progress onto a higher-level course in the future. Although my current role does not give me the opportunity to work directly with young people, I intend to return to teaching, so the knowledge I gained will be highly relevant. In the meantime, an awareness of mental health challenges across all age groups is something I use every day in my role as a Health and Wellbeing Coach. I would like to thank the college for offering fully funded, well-constructed courses that provide the opportunity to develop knowledge and understanding across a range of important and relevant topics
Emily
Neuroscience In Early Years Level 2I chose this online course as I had recently qualified as a teacher and completed my Master’s in Early Years Education, but I missed learning and developing my knowledge, particularly within Early Years. This course provided a flexible opportunity to continue my learning in a way that suited my needs. The application process was straightforward and fully accessible. Response times were very quick, and I was able to start the course soon after applying. The course deadlines were reasonable, providing a good balance between flexibility and accountability for the work I produced. Communication was effective, and turnaround times for constructive feedback were excellent. Being able to attain a new qualification for free was incredible, and I appreciated that progression doesn’t always have to be vertical.
What can I do with a qualification in Early Years Education?
Daily tasks:
- Assists with or plans and develops curriculum and rota of teaching duties.
- Discusses progress with student, parents and/or other education professionals.
- Supervises teaching assistants and trainees.
- Undertakes pastoral duties.
- Teaches simple songs and rhymes, reads stories and organises various activities to promote language, social and physical development.
- Supervises students and maintains classroom discipline.
- Maintains records of students.
- Prepares students for external examinations and administers and invigilates these examinations.
- Prepares, assigns and corrects exercises and examinations to record and evaluate students.
- Prepares and delivers courses and lessons in accordance with curriculum requirements and teaches a range of subjects.
Daily tasks:
- Discusses student.
- Updates and maintains students.
- Liaises with other professionals, such as social workers, speech and language therapists and educational psychologists.
- Supervises students in classroom and maintains discipline.
- Prepares, assigns and corrects exercises to record and evaluate students progress.
- Encourages the student to develop self-help skills to circumvent the limitations imposed by their disability.
- Develops and adapts conventional teaching methods to meet the individual student.
- Gives instruction, using techniques appropriate to the student.
- Assesses student.
- Creates a safe, stimulating and supportive learning environment for students.
Daily tasks:
- Coordinates and maintains quality assurance procedures.
- Assists with recruitment, public relations and marketing activities.
- Arranges for the preparation and publication of syllabuses and other official documents.
- Organises examinations, necessary invigilations and any security procedures required.
- Drafts and interprets regulations and deals with queries and complaints procedures.
- Acts as secretary to statutory and other bodies/committees associated with the educational establishment.
- Controls administrative aspects of student admission, registration and graduation.
- Leads or contributes to decision making processes regarding curricula, budgetary, disciplinary and other matters.
- Provides administrative support to the academic team.
- Arranges for evaluation of management, accounting, information storage and retrieval and other facilities.
Daily tasks:
- Communicates with parents and colleagues on children.
- Writes reports on children.
- Reads stories, organises counting games to help develop language and number skills.
- Plans and organises games and other activities and supervises children.
- Supervises young children at mealtimes.
- Baths, dresses, prepares feed for and feeds babies, changes babies clothing whenever necessary.
Daily tasks:
- Complies with regulations set by OFSTED and their inspection requirements.
- Maintains appropriate records of children.
- Takes older children to and from school.
- Takes children to participate in play groups or on appropriate outings.
- Provides, supervises and participates in children.
- Mends, washes and irons children.
- Plans, prepares and serves children.
- Changes babies.
- Assists children to wash and dress.
Daily tasks:
- Liaises with parents, carers and colleagues and keeps appropriate records.
- Puts away equipment and cleans premises after use.
- Organises and supervises children.
- Organises and supervises children on excursions.
- Encourages children.
- Provides play areas and prepares materials for a wide range of children.
- Supervises children.
Daily tasks:
- Helps with outings and other out-of-classroom activities.
- Makes simple teaching aids and constructs thematic displays of educational material or children.
- Assists children with washing or dressing for outdoor and similar activities.
- Listens to children read, reads to them or tells stories.
- Looks after lesson materials such as paper, pencils and crayons.
- Assists teacher with preparation or clearing up of classroom.
Daily tasks:
- Provides feedback to teachers and completes and maintains records.
- Attends to child.
- Helps and encourages child to communicate.
- Implements care programmes, as appropriate.
- Identifies signs of distress and offers reassurance.
- Helps child understand instruction through a variety of means and encourages self-confidence and independence.
- Supports schoolwork under teacher.
Daily tasks:
- Directs children to cross the road when safe.
- Signals approaching traffic to stop by using hand signals and school crossing signs.
- Waits for a safe gap in traffic and walks to the centre of road.
- Meets children wanting to cross the road and directs them to wait at the kerb.
- Assists young children with feeding, dressing, washing and toiletry activities.
- Cares for sick children and administers first aid if necessary.
- Supervises the playground activities of children during meal and break times.
Application Tips for Adults 19+
Fees and Finance
Levels Explained