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Childcare and Education

Level 2 Diploma Early Years Practitioner NCFE

The qualification that gets you working in early years for real. As a qualified Early Years Practitioner you can work in a nursery and count towards its staff ratios, so this is a genuine route into a job with children. You'll spend real time on placement in early years settings, learning the child development, safeguarding and care skills the job depends on.

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How you’ll learn

Get Qualified. Get Into a Nursery.

This is where working with children becomes a real qualification. You’ll learn how children develop, how to support their learning and play, how to keep them safe through safeguarding and health and safety, and how to work well with families and colleagues in a setting. It is caring work, but it carries real responsibility, and it takes proper knowledge to do it well.

The heart of the course is real placement time in early years settings, where you put everything into practice with actual children. As a qualified Early Years Practitioner you can count towards a nursery’s staff ratios, so this leads straight into employment, or up to the Level 3 and the T Level.

Your Role, Safeguarding and Working Together

  • Roles and responsibilities of the early years practitioner
  • Health and safety of babies and young children in the early years
  • Equality, diversity and inclusive practice in early years settings
  • Safeguarding, protection and welfare of babies and young children
  • Promote positive behaviour in early years settings
  • Partnership working in the early years

Supporting Children's Care, Play and Development

  • Understand how to support children’s development
  • Support care routines for babies and young children
  • Support the planning and delivery of activities, play opportunities and educational programmes
  • Promote play in an early years setting
  • Support the wellbeing of babies and young children for healthy lifestyles
  • Support babies and young children to be physically active
  • Support the needs of babies and young children with special educational needs and disability (SEND)
  • Support the needs of the child in preparing for school
Entry and progression

What you need and where it leads

  1. Entry requirements
  2. This course Level 2
  3. Further study

Entry requirements

  • GCSE Grade 3 in English and Maths
  • A genuine commitment to working with children
  • Successful interview with our team
  • An enhanced DBS check (Doncaster College covers the cost)

If you're still working towards Grade 4 in Maths or English, you can keep building those alongside the course.

Not sure you meet these? Talk to us and we will help you find the right starting point.

Further study

See all 20 courses

At this college

At North Lindsey College

Careers it can lead to

  • Early Education and Childcare Assistants £13.30 an hour
  • With further study or experience Early Education and Childcare Practitioners £12.96 an hour
  • With further study or experience Child and Early Years Officers £27,500 a year
  • With further study or experience Early Education and Childcare Services Managers £22,400 a year

Typical pay is the UK median for each job (Lightcast, October 2026).

Our facilities

Learn in a Real Nursery Setting

You'll learn in professional early years environments and on placement in real settings, supported by tutors who've worked with children.

  • Butterfly Day Nursery

    A professional day nursery on campus, so you learn in a real early years setting.

  • Real Placements

    Time in real nurseries and early years settings, putting your learning into practice with children.

  • DBS Check Covered

    Doncaster College pays for your DBS check, so cost is never a barrier to your placement.

Early Years Childcare Education (1)
On-Campus Nursery · Real Placements · DBS Covered
Robyn

Robyn

T-Level Education and Childcare

Student Voice

“

I’ve learnt how to model good behaviour and build strong relationships with children, and how to manage them. The coursework can be tough, but it’s exciting—and it’s worth it when you see the difference it makes for the children.

Read more student stories
For parents and carers

Supporting your child’s journey

GCSE Support Built In

If your child needs to resit GCSE English or Maths, it's built into the timetable, not bolted on as an extra. They'll get structured support alongside their main course.

About student support

A Friendly, Welcoming Place

Students are often surprised by how friendly and welcoming college is. It's a supportive community where they'll build genuine friendships and feel part of something.

About student life

Qualifications That Count

These are nationally recognised qualifications with real academic weight. Your child will develop practical skills and knowledge that employers and universities genuinely value.

See the full unit list

Your next step

Apply now, come and see us first, or ask us anything.

Ready to Get Qualified?

Applications for September 2027 are open. Apply online in 10 minutes.

Apply online

Want to visit first?

FE Open Event – 12th January 202712th January 4:30pm to 7:00pm

Book your place

What happens after you apply

1

You apply

Apply online and you’ll get a confirmation email.

2

You meet your tutor

We’ll invite you to an interview to talk through the course and your plans, and make sure it’s right for you.

3

You get an offer

We’ll email you a conditional or unconditional offer.

4

You get ready to start

Come to a taster session in the summer, then enrol in August, bringing your results.

Read our full guide to applying