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Childcare and Education

Level 1 Certificate in Caring for Children

Your first step towards working with children. If you want a career in a nursery, a school or early years care, this is where it starts. You'll learn how children grow and develop, how to keep them safe, and how to build the caring, trusting relationships that good early years work is built on. Hands-on, supportive, and a real route towards Level 2.

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How you’ll learn

Learn What Caring for Children Really Takes.

This course is a real introduction to working with children. It is more than playing: you’ll learn how children grow and develop, how to support their play and learning, and how to keep them safe and well. It builds the caring, patient, dependable qualities that every nursery and school looks for, and it gives you a genuine feel for whether this is the career for you.

Alongside working with children, you’ll build your own confidence and personal skills, and keep developing your Maths and English. It is honest work with real responsibility, and by the end of the year you’ll be ready to step up to the Level 2 Early Years Practitioner and keep moving towards a career working with children.

What You'll Cover

  • Growth and development of children
  • Supporting children’s play and learning
  • Keeping children safe and well
  • Developing your own confidence and personal skills
  • Preparing for your next steps in education and work
Entry and progression

What you need and where it leads

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

Entry requirements

  • GCSE Grade 1 in Maths or English, plus one other GCSE
  • A genuine interest in working with and caring for children
  • Successful interview with our team

If you haven't yet achieved Grade 4 in Maths or English, you'll keep working towards them alongside your course, built into your timetable.

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

Further study

See all 21 courses

At this college

At North Lindsey College

Careers it can lead to

  • Care Escorts £12.98 an hour
  • Houseparents and Residential Wardens £25,800 a year
  • Care Workers and Home Carers £13.39 an hour
  • Senior Care Workers £26,800 a year
See all 12 careers
  • Childminders £12.72 an hour
  • Early Education and Childcare Assistants £13.30 an hour
  • Nannies and Au Pairs £14.13 an hour
  • Playworkers £12.96 an hour

With further study or experience

  • Early Education and Childcare Practitioners £12.96 an hour
  • Child and Early Years Officers £27,500 a year
  • Early Education and Childcare Services Managers £22,400 a year
  • Residential, Day and Domiciliary Care Managers and Proprietors £42,000 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 environments built for early years training, supported by tutors who've worked with children themselves.

  • Butterfly Day Nursery

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

  • RealCare Baby Simulators

    Hands-on practice with realistic baby simulators, plus paediatric first aid and safeguarding.

  • 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 · 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

Real Career Prospects

These qualifications lead to real jobs. Our courses are built around the skills that employers are actually hiring for, locally and nationally.

See career options

Learning Support

If your child has additional learning needs, our support team works with them from day one. Adjustments are put in place early so they can get the most out of their course.

About learning support

Your next step

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

Ready to Start Working With Children?

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