Overview
Launch a rewarding and in-demand pre-school teaching career, with VU's one-year Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education.
Our graduate diploma allows graduates of degree programs to become early-childhood teachers. With the current 3-year-old kindergarten expansion in Victoria, this course places you in an excellent position to apply for work as a kinder teacher.
If you're a domestic student or you won’t be studying at VU on a student visa, you can study this course online.
This course is tailored to applicants with an undergraduate qualification in a discipline other than early childhood. If you hold an early childhood teaching degree and you're looking to advance your career, we recommend upskilling to a four year degree by applying for the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education and Leadership.
You'll study units focused on children from birth to five years, learning how teaching practice can include children and families as capable participants in education.
You'll also gain hands-on work experience in a range of settings, including childcare and kindergartens, graduating with expertise in early-childhood learning built on a strong sense of social justice.
Gain insight into the early years by studying these fascinating areas:
- child development
- teaching practice that includes Aboriginal perspectives
- education and curriculum studies focused on childhood and relationships
- family and community contexts
- advocacy and activism in early-childhood settings
- history and philosophy of early childhood
- ethical early-childhood professional practice.
This course is ACECQA accredited and is recognised by the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) for teaching registration in Victoria, by the Education Standards Authority (NESA) in New South Wales and by the Queensland College of Teachers in Queensland.
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Initiate teaching and learning practices that foster learner engagement in complex contexts and foreground Aboriginal standpoints in early childhood education;
- Critically review different ways of knowing, being, and doing founded on the view of children and families as capable contributors to conceptual and pedagogical decision-making in learning and teaching;
- Design teaching practices that reflect an ability to contextualise, question, resist, rethink, and act towards equity and the public good;
- Exhibit a broad and coherent body of knowledge of early childhood pedagogy, curriculum and assessment in relation to the changing nature of education in a rapidly-evolving global context;
- Appraise, adapt, and exemplify a range of oral and written communication techniques to engage and connect with learners, their parents/carers and the wider community;
- Create learning opportunities that embrace a rich and varied curriculum, reflecting culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds ensuring that learning and teaching approaches are based on sound ethical principles and foster reciprocal relationships in early childhood settings.
You'll complete 60 days of supervised professional experience, including:
- 15 days with children aged birth – 35 months
- 15 days with 3–5 year olds
- 5 days community playspace, with children aged birth – 8 years
- 25 days in a 3–4-year-old, or 4–5-year-old, kindergarten program (preschool).
We have many exciting projects, partnerships and initiatives to help you learn from experience working with young children. VU will find you a placement, or you can also organise your own placement, if this is your preference.
This course has been approved by Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), which oversees national quality frameworks in early-childhood education.
This means that you'll graduate with the latest early-childhood teaching methods and knowledge.
Potential students outside Victoria should check the early childhood teacher registration requirements with the teacher registration body in their own state.