OCR Level 2 National Certificate in Health and Social Care

OCR Level 2 National Certificate in Health and Social Care

Entry Requirements
Mainly Ds and Es at GCSE.

About the Course
This is a one-year course covering a variety of health and social care topics. The course is made up of six separate units. All the units are coursework based, so there are no exams. You will receive a certificate from the OCR exam board for each unit you successfully complete. To achieve the full qualification of National Certificate in Health and Social Care you must successfully complete all six units of the course. This will give you a qualification that is broadly equivalent to four GCSEs at grade C or above. Depending on your overall mark you will be awarded a Pass grade (equivalent to four GCSEs at grade C), a Merit grade (equivalent to four GCSEs at grade B) or a Distinction grade (equivalent to 4 GCSEs at grade A).

The course consists of four compulsory units in: preparing to give quality care; communicating with service users in care settings; practical caring; hygiene and safety in care settings. In addition to these four units you will also study two optional units, for example: healthcare for children; practical first aid for care settings.

You will be expected to take part in relevant work placements, as part of your study programme for this course. Students taking this course usually do a minimum of a half-day a week work placement with health care, social care or early years organisations for 10 weeks during the Autumn Term during two terms of the course. This gives you an opportunity to collect information to help you with your coursework and the chance to gain work experience.

An OCR National qualification in Health and Social Care at level 2 will enable you to enter employment or training, within a wide range of health and social care environments, for example you could be accepted as a trainee for a post as a care assistant or early-years worker. You can also use this qualification to gain entry onto: other level 2 qualifications such as GCSEs and other OCR National qualifications; Level 3 qualifications such as A levels and OCR National qualifications.

This course is ideal if you are thinking of a career in health and social care or just want to find out if this type of career is for you. Doing this course will enable you to learn about topics relating to health and social care; develop skills to help you to progress onto further health and social care courses or training; keep your options open if you are not sure about what career direction to take, since you can use this qualification to progress onto other courses as well as health and social care.

There are no set entry requirements for this course. This qualification is available to anyone who is capable of reaching the required standards.