CACHE NVQ Level 3 in Children’s Care, Learning and Development

For Manjeet Saini, the CACHE Level 3 NVQ in Children’s Care, Learning and Development provided her not only with high quality training to develop upon her experience and skills, but also the opportunity to pursue a varied and rewarding job at a Children’s Centre.

Although she already had a lot of experience, Manjeet found that "Level 3 provided me with what I call 'light bulb moments' – like fresh ideas on explaining to a child how to keep themselves safe."

"When studying for my A Levels, I worked in Customer Service and retail, before moving to Germany to try a totally new venture working in the catering business," says Manjeet. "However, once I had my children I became really interested in supporting their development and the theories behind it. I did some short courses whilst working for Family Groups, and studied things like making play more fun, - and then I really got bitten by the training bug!"

One of the training courses Manjeet attended whilst working at Family Groups involved lots of work experience with crèche skills, health and safety and food hygiene elements. However, she soon became interested in learning more about how to interact with children and support their learning and development, which led her to enrol upon the CACHE Level 1 Award in Getting Started in a Pre-school Setting.

Before long, Manjeet became an integral member of the team at the Family Groups Crèche, and was keen to develop leadership responsibilities within her setting. "I started my CACHE Level 3 NVQ in Children's Care, Learning and Development without doing a Level 2 qualification, as I had a lot of experience at this point. However, I still found that the Level 3 provided me with what I call 'light bulb moments' – like fresh ideas on explaining to a child how to keep themselves safe. I also enjoyed looking closely at play, and personally learnt a lot about imaginative play - the importance of letting children take it in their own direction, giving them choice."

Whilst working at the Family Groups crèche, and juggling study for her NVQ, Manjeet also became involved in 'Baby Bollywood', a singing session with babies and toddlers that focuses on early bilingual language support. "I loved the close contact with the young children and working around early language skills with the parents," says Manjeet. "When I had been in post for about a year, the Bi-lingual Family Support Worker’s position at Queens Park came up. I was a bit worried as I hadn’t finished my Level 3 NVQ, but luckily I got the job on the condition that I completed it within a year, and I am delighted to say I did!"

Manjeet has now been in post for 2 years, and says "I love my job, as it varies from day to day. Queens Park is a really diverse community and there’s a vast amount of creative and positive work being done." Although no two days are ever the same for her, typically Manjeet spends a lot of time visiting local nurseries, schools and also families at home. "It’s nice to get a rapport with the families, and because of the links we have we can also put them in touch with social services, health visitors or midwives too if they need it. For Punjabi speaking families I can explain everything fully so that they feel a bit more reassured."

In addition to visiting local schools, nurseries and families at home Manjeet is also involved with things like on site parenting workshops in which the group complete exercises, share ideas and chat informally – all whilst their children are being looked after in the Centre Crèche. "I’m really interested in adult learning, and did a short college course on it recently. We do mandatory training here too, on things like health and safety and first aid, but we have also done short courses on breast feeding and really interesting stuff like weaning- how this is done in other cultures, and the theory behind child initiated weaning."

Manjeet's commitment to her role and her own professional development is very clear. She says "I love learning new things, and am even considering doing a Level 4 qualification to help me in my job." I would advise anyone interested in a career in childcare to try a voluntary position, then consider a Level 1 qualification, maybe the CACHE Level 1 Award in Getting Started in a Pre-school setting which provided me with a good step into training and gave me confidence to develop my career, do more qualifications and get a great job that I love."

CACHE NVQ Level 3 in Children's Care Learning and Development
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