Emma
Graduated 2003

I graduated in 2003 with a BA (Hons) degree in Early Childhood Studies (2.1). As I wasn’t able to drive, I took a part-time job in a pub and spent the rest of my time learning to drive, taking lessons in British Sign Language, Deaf Awareness and First Aid. I also looked after my baby brother for three days a week for the first year after I graduated, so that my mum could return to her teaching job.

In 2004 I started to apply for lots of jobs in the early year's sector, but I was limited to where I could work due to my lack of transport. After several months of filling in applications to no avail, I discovered that the reason I wasn’t getting interviews was that I wasn’t technically qualified to work as a Nursery Nurse/Playworker etc as I hadn’t got an NVQ qualification (or equivalent).

I persevered with my part-time courses and gained BSL Level 1, Deaf Awareness Level 1 and a certificate in First Aid. I began to apply for jobs with older children and worked as a volunteer Teaching Assistant at a local secondary school for 1 day a week over a period of 6 months. Finally, in September 2005 I was offered 2 jobs at once and took them both!

I work full-time as a Learning Support Assistant (LSA) for a charity run special school for children/young adults aged 5-19, all of whom have varying degrees of speech and language difficulties. The students are referred to the school from all over the country and many of them board at the school.

I work in the FE study centre with students aged 16-19. The school works in partnership with the local college - our students attend college for at least 2 days a week (depending on the course they are taking) and do most of their life/key skills work in the study centre.

Last year, I was responsible for 3 students who were all doing an entry level childcare course. I chaperoned them to and from college and supported them in lessons by:

• Taking notes
• Helping them with spelling and sentence construction
• Assisting them in communicating their feelings and expressing their opinions during class discussion (and in their social time with friends)
• Helping them to understand what they have to do regarding assignments (often through refashioning worksheets to give them more structure and guidance)
• Helping them to revise (and in some instances, relearn) for their end of year exam

As our students find it difficult to communicate, I was also responsible for ensuring that the care staff understood the students’ assignments, so that they were able to help and encourage them to meet deadlines.

In my colleagues’ absence, I also supported students on beauty, art and sports courses, as well as chaperoning students to ‘enrichment’ sessions, such as swimming and bowling.

When I’m not at college, I support our students in the study centre and sometimes cover in school. I work closely with the Speech and Language Therapists to feedback on students’ progress against targets. I also attend my students’ annual reviews and provide feedback to their parents.

All of the LSAs and care staff in the school have an academic background in language, childcare or adult learning. Around half are graduates. The knowledge I gained from completing the partnership, equal opportunities, child protection and numeracy and literacy units are particularly relevant to this job. I hear that the course now has units concerning the development of language in the early years which would have been very relevant too. Additionally, my background in childcare made me the obvious choice to support on the childcare course.

I also feel that my dissertation made me stand out to my employers as I had conducted an investigation into ‘Gender Differences in Speech and Language Development’ whilst on placement with Sure Start. This emphasized my interest in speech and language development and demonstrated my ability to work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

For my second job, I work as a part-time Youth Worker. I work detached, which means that, rather than being centre-based, myself and my colleague engage with young people on the streets, on parks, outside shops etc. The aim of the job is to socially educate young people and signpost them to services which may be of benefit to them. We often arrange for young people (usually 13-19 years) to participate in adventurous activities, dance projects etc. It can be a difficult job - particularly when attempting to establish new relationships - but on the whole is a worthwhile and rewarding job.
Again, knowledge of equal opportunities and child protection are important for this job. Knowledge of government agencies comes in handy for signposting. The knowledge I gained from the ‘Poverty and Inequalities’ and ‘The Child, Family and Society’ have also been helpful.

It is my ambition to progress to working with people who are D/deaf/deafened/Hard of Hearing in the future, possibly as an Interpreter or as a member of the County Deaf Team. Therefore, after taking a year out, I have enrolled on the second year of the BSL Level 2 course which I will be starting in September. I am also interested in working for Sure Start as a Speech and Language Therapy Assistant, Family Worker or Outreach Worker. I feel that aspects of both of my current jobs lend themselves to these careers.

My advice to ECS students would be:

• Put lots of careful consideration into the subject matter for your dissertation. Make sure you choose something which you are really interested in, rather than something which is easy. It will be a big selling point in interviews if you choose something which is directly related to your future career.

• If you are unsure of what you want to do when you graduate, use your yearly placements as an opportunity to explore various early years' settings. Not only will this help you to decide where you would prefer to work, it also looks good on your CV if you have had a variety of experience and adapted well to each new setting.

• Try to find time to do some voluntary work (besides your placements) and enroll on relevant, short courses to enhance your CV (e.g. First Aid). www.do-it.org.uk is a good place to start.
  • Don’t just look in your local paper for jobs! Check out your county council’s website as well as jobcentreplus.gov.uk

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