Early Childhood Education and Care BA Placements

The wide variety of placement opportunities available is a distinctive feature of the Early Childhood Education and Care BA which allows students to explore potential career paths and build their CVs.

This year, during semester 2, 20 second year students will embark on their placements as part of the module ‘Understanding Young Children and Young Children’s Services’.

Students will attend placement for 160 hours over a five to ten week period and will be based in organisations such as schools, local authorities, charities and community-led organisations in both the UK and overseas.

To help students prepare for their placement, Dr Juliet Milican, from The Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP), gave a presentation on student engagement with the community. They have also been taught sessions on ‘structure and culture of organisations’, ‘multi-agency working’ and ‘developing your skills and employability’.

Two of our students have managed to secure their placements overseas:

Skye Cooper has secured a placement at a children’s community centre near a refugee camp in Dunkirk as she is keen to gain experience working overseas. This interest has come from previous charity work within refugee camps which has inspired her to want to put her knowledge and understanding of early years into practice.

During her placement, Skye will be working alongside a range of people from various different professional backgrounds as well as a mentor who will support her with her own learning and development.

Skye is hoping to gain experience learning rich teaching methods that can help children from areas of conflict, and who may need additional educational support and guidance.

Skye said: “The course encourages students to explore potential career paths and the tutors were really supportive of my initial proposal and helping to arrange everything.  I am hoping that this placement will help me to improve my own performance as an aspiring teacher for children, through developing my skills and putting teaching methods into practice”.

Kristina Tokac will be based at the European School of Brussels (EEB1) in Belgium for her placement where she will work within the English speaking section in the nursery class. Kristina chose an international school as she is particularly keen on building on her previous experience of engaging in a multicultural setting and was attracted to the schools values and ethics.

Kristina feels this placement will provide her with a highly valuable experience which will help to develop her professional skills further, build confidence and, in particular, improve her strategies when working with children that are learning English as an additional language. During her time Kristina will also carry out her own research through observational study.

Kristina said: “I believe that this placement will allow me to engage with children’s development using The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), providing me with the opportunity of later bringing this into my own classroom. I am looking forward to working within this vibrant multicultural environment and exploring new prospects”.

Both placements will provide excellent opportunities for Skye and Kristina to trial potential careers and gain transferable skills that can be applied to many situations. We wish them both the best of luck.

Find out more about our Early Childhood Education and Care Ba(Hons) on the University of Brighton website.