Children from birth to school age can access education and care programs through a long day care centre. Long day care generally operates for at least 10 hours a day, Monday to Friday, for at least 48 weeks a year.
Many long day care services offer an approved kindergarten program and some offer outside school hours care for school-aged children. All long day care services caring for children under school age must employ, or have access to,​ a qualified early childhood teacher.
Learn more about: working in long day care (PDF, 271KB) (DOCX, 28KB).
Roles and qualifications to work in long day care
There are many long day care services across Queensland. They employ thousands of people in a range of roles with different qualifications. These are:
Early childhood teacher - approved Early childhood teacher qualification
- Works directly with children and their families.
- Plans and delivers educational programs.
- Supervises, mentors and coaches other educators.
Early childhood educator - approved Certificate III level qualification
- Provides education and care to a group of children.
- Helps plan and develop the group's educational program.
Early childhood educator - approved Diploma level qualification
- Supports children's learning and development.
- Helps design, plan, implement and evaluate educational programs.
Nominated supervisor (service director)
- Provides day-to-day management of an approved service.
- Ensures the safety, health and well-being of children at the service.
- Ensures the program delivered to children is based on an approved learning framework.
- Works collaboratively with the regulatory authority.
- There are no legislative qualification requirements to manage a long day care service, unless you work directly with the children. Most services, however, will require the service director to have a diploma, degree or higher.
Learn more about: qualifications for centre-based services.