I've done it, diploma and advance diploma over the years.
A cert 3 these days will cost you around $1000 - through tafe - if you have a health care card it will be much cheaper.
Make sure you do it through a registered training organisation. Consider doing a traineeship also, good way of earning a bit while you do it - you will need to do about 150 prac hours for the course so why not get paid while doing them.
emmasn - sorry can't offer u much cost wise as mine was done through a traineeship!
which included 1 day a week going to the ABC learning college and the rest done at work or on weekends! it took 12mths and was fairly easy!
Just beware of Cengage, they are way over priced and just there to make money, they charge $90 a mth or just ova 2grand upfront, ekk!!! OTEN is excellect and it will cost u half the price. Enjoy the course its great.
I did mine thru International Child Care College - they are based in Newcastle - they have a website which should give you some more information. I did mine partly correspondence with one night a month at the college for help/ideas/etc.
I've also started my diploma with them, but haven't received a lot of help and due to other personal circumstances it has been pushed aside for the moment.
I did mine years ago as a traineeship. Much better to learn on the job than it is to just do written correspondance work. I have heard a few negative things about cengage too. Also, beware of some correspondance places, i'm not a 100% sure about the child care one, but in the massage industry we've had a lot of people come to apply for jobs who have studied correspondance and their qualification isn't recognised, or they can't get insurance or they can't get provider numbers, because the course wasn't accreddited nationally, so people have spend lots of money doing a "diploma" but its just the comapnys own funky name for a non recognised course.
In an industry like massage or child care, SO SO SO much of the learning is being there with the children, or working hands on with massage, so i question the end result of a correspondance course compared to a proper course with lots of placement training.
Also the motivation is much easier in a class or at a centre, rather than being at home on your own. I also found alot of the theory work in the child care course quite boring to be honest, but loved working with the kids and learning off the group leaders and other staff.
Also to add, i loved working in child care when I did, i loved the kids dearly, but once I had my onw DD i stopped enjoying it, cause after a full busy day i'd go home to her and it would honestly feel like I was doing the same thing 24/7. I never got a break from kids! Thats why the change of career
And, its a job you have to love, cause honestly, for the ammount of work you do, and it is alot and it is hard and it is exhasuting some days, the pay isn't great :S
Good luck with it though, hope you find something that suits you perfectly!
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