Childcare Workers
Childcare workers attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. They perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play.
A childcare worker's job is to look after a child, including mentally disturbed, delinquent, or handicapped children while helping to foster early development.
The rights and responsibilities of workers and employers in childcare are to monitor children's play activities, maintain a safe play environment, sanitise toys and play equipment, dress children and changes diapers, sterilise bottles and prepare formulas, help children with homework and schoolwork, and operates in-house day-care centres within businesses.
Daycare assistants are skilled at communicating with children's parents or guardians about daily schedule, behaviours, and related issues, supporting children's emotional and social development, encouraging understanding of others and positive self-concepts and providing care for children in institutional settings, like nursery schools, group homes, private businesses, or schools for the handicapped.
Working in childcare involves keeping records on individual children, including daily observations and information about activities, meals served, and medications administered, identifying signs of emotional or developmental problems in children and apprising parents or guardians about it.
Additionally, other responsibilities in childcare include performing housekeeping duties, such as cleaning, dishwashing, changing linens, laundry and teaching children simple handicrafts, painting, drawing, storytelling and songs.
How to become a childcare worker? It requires a high school diploma with previous work-related skills, knowledge and experience. The required skills include service orientation, social perceptiveness, communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, learning strategies, and reading comprehension, amongst others.
A successful childcare worker must know customer service, education and training, public safety and psychology.
Qualifications
Every career requires an element of study and academic qualification, and there can be several study routes and pathways you can take. In following any academic pathway you will study subjects that contribute to the specialised knowledge required to achieve your career goals. These qualifications provide a future employer with the evidence that you have the desired knowledge, understanding and experience of their industry, so it’s important to consider the various types of qualifications available to you and to understand how they can boost your career and create opportunities for you.
- Diploma Early Childhood Education
Tasks
- Support children's emotional and social development, encouraging understanding of others and positive self-concepts.
- Care for children in institutional setting, such as group homes, nursery schools, private businesses, or schools for the handicapped.
- Sanitize toys and play equipment.
- Discipline children and recommend or initiate other measures to control behavior, such as caring for own clothing and picking up toys and books.
- Identify signs of emotional or developmental problems in children and bring them to parents' or guardians' attention.
- Observe and monitor children's play activities.
- Keep records on individual children, including daily observations and information about activities, meals served, and medications administered.
- Instruct children in health and personal habits, such as eating, resting, and toilet habits.
- Read to children and teach them simple painting, drawing, handicrafts, and songs.
- Organize and store toys and materials to ensure order in activity areas.
Progression Routes
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