Really want to get myself a career but have no idea what to do/where to start! Help!

[Purplegirlie]

I've been a SAHM for several years, and really haven't worked properly for about 13 years since I had my eldest DD, although I did have several part-time jobs at various times until I had DD2. They were mainly admin jobs and I didn't like them particularly. I was more or less shoehorned into doing a business administration course by my parents when I left school, which in turn led to a job, but my boss wasn't very nice at all and was very sexist. and my confidence in my working ability was at rock bottom. I worked there for 5 years and was passed over for promotion several times and told by my boss that I would never progress up the career ladder because I "didn't have it in me".

I was saying to DH the other day that I did really well at school (All As and Bs at GCSE) and feel that I've never ever achieved my full potential. My youngest child is due to start school in a couple of years and I want to start to plan so that I can eventually get myself the good, rewarding, enjoyable career I've always dreamt about.

Now the question is what to do? I don't have a degree and am not against doing one, in fact I'd quite like to do one. My local college offers a small selection of degrees, one of which is psychology, which is something that has always interested me. I have no idea what I would do with the degree though, or do you just do your degree and then get ideas about your career along the way? The other thing that interests me is accountancy. But where would I start with that? If I got, say, a job as an Accounts Clerk or Accounts Assistant perhaps I would be able to progress from there if I studied too? I haven't got a huge amount of money to spend (if I did a degree I'd need the tuition loans), but I could stretch to a reasonable amount for, say, an accounting course. I phoned my local college by they don't offer any accountancy courses whatsoever so have no idea where to study if i was going to do this. I know there are online and distance course providers but it's hard to know which are good to study with.

One more thing that interests me is sales; I have worked briefly in sales before and enjoyed it. The thing that puts me off is travelling all over the place though, if possible I'd like to get a job in, or near to, my home town.

Many thanks for reading. Any ideas/suggestions would be most appreciated.

[chutneypig]

Have you had a look at the Open University? There's such a range of courses on offer it might help just to see what's about and of course it's very flexible.

[Parietal]

Before you spend money on courses, it is probably a good idea to decide what you really want to do. Can you do temping or try to get work experience in any of the areas you mentioned?