Schools rarely advertise for an untrained teaching assistant any more. The work has changed: supporting a child with additional needs, running an intervention group, keeping records that stand up to inspection. Most adverts now ask for a Level 2 or Level 3 qualification, and the ones that do not tend to attract enough qualified applicants that it makes no difference.
The awkward part is the order. Many teaching assistant qualifications require a school placement before you can complete them, and a school is unlikely to offer a placement to someone with no qualification. That is a circle, and it stops a lot of people before they start.
The Award breaks the circle
The CACHE Level 3 Award in Supporting Teaching and Learning is the introduction to the field, and it requires no placement. It carries the Ofqual number 603/2495/8, is awarded by NCFE under the CACHE brand, and sits on the Regulated Qualifications Framework at Level 3.
That means you can hold a regulated Level 3 qualification in the subject before you approach a school, rather than needing the school first. It is the Award, not the Certificate or the Diploma, and the size reflects that: 80 guided learning hours and 120 total qualification time.
What it covers
The knowledge a teaching assistant is expected to arrive with. How schools and colleges work as organisations, health and safety in an education setting, safeguarding, and child development. It is the theory that underpins the job, which is exactly the part that is hard to pick up informally.
Who it is for
People who want to work in a school and need a qualification to be taken seriously, parents returning to work who have plenty of experience with children and nothing on paper, and existing teaching assistants who never got round to formalising it. There are no formal entry requirements, and the minimum age is 16.
How it is assessed
Portfolio, online, marked by our assessors and quality assured by NCFE. No written examination and no placement to arrange. You work through the units at your own pace and build the evidence as you go.
What it costs and how long it takes
The fee is 399 pounds. Study is entirely online and self-paced, with no fixed deadlines, so the time it takes is largely yours to decide. The 80 guided learning hours describe the taught content rather than a schedule.
What comes after
The Award is the entry point. The Certificate and the Diploma in the same field are larger and do involve working in a setting, so the usual route is to take the Award, use it to get into a school, and continue from there if the job turns into a career.
What you study, unit by unit
Four units make up the Award, all of them mandatory, and together they carry the 80 guided learning hours. Two of the four are the areas a school will ask about at interview whether or not you hold a qualification, so it is worth seeing what each actually contains.
Unit 1: schools and colleges as organisations (10 hours)
How education is structured from early years to post-16, how a school or college is organised, and who does what: governors, the senior team, the SENCO, teachers and the support roles you would be joining. It also covers teamwork, the ethos and values a setting publishes, and why schools have the policies they have. It is the unit that stops a new teaching assistant being surprised by how the place works.
Unit 2: health and safety in a learning environment (20 hours)
Planning environments that keep children and young people safe, recognising and managing risk in the setting and on off-site visits, helping children learn to assess risk for themselves, responding to accidents, incidents, emergencies and illness, and your own role in assisting with medication. This is the unit that underpins the practical judgement a school relies on you for, and it is the one a placement would otherwise teach you the hard way.