Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care

This diploma only opens up once a student already holds the Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care. It's a deliberate two-stage pathway rather than a standalone entry qualification, which means every student arrives with at least some paid or supervised experience already in a childcare setting. The diploma itself runs across two stages, each carrying 360 hours of mandatory work placement, for a combined 720 hours of supervised field experience across the qualification, a substantial practical component relative to the classroom time.

South Metro TAFE structures the course to work around people already employed in the sector: full-time study runs at roughly two days a week (or one evening at the Rockingham campus for students working in a regulated childcare service), and those students can count their paid work hours toward the placement requirement rather than needing to find separate unpaid placement time on top of a job.

Graduates typically move into lead educator or room leader roles in long day care, and the diploma is also the recognised qualification level for meeting the "diploma-qualified educator" ratio requirements under the National Quality Framework, which is what makes it valuable to centres beyond just the individual's own skill development.