A novice prospective mature student after advice...

[MsPonder]

Hi,

So I want to drastically change my career ( I currently work in Finance and am starting to loathe it) and wondered if there was anyone here that could give me some rounded and inspirational advice...

I want to get into working with Children with special needs, specifically Children within the Autistic Spectrum. My heart is drawing
me to play therapy or even SEN Teaching. Play therapists are quite sought after but I cant find the same info on SEN Teachers.

I don't have a degree but I have GCSE's and a couple of A Levels.

I can train with the PTUK from the beginning right up to Masters level which I have been massively drawn to previously but after much consideration, I think this may limit my job choices later on.

I can go to uni and do a degree which I am now 80% sure I will end up doing but I am struggling with which degree? Do I do a degree in education or do the social sciences degree which will open up lots of different opportunities.

I am no spring chicken, so whichever route I take I will be going in as a mature student.

Any advice to someone starting from scratch is very welcomed. There is only so much I can google. :)

[noblegiraffe]

Maybe post in the SEN section where you might find posters with specialist knowledge?

[MsPonder]

Thanks, not sure why I didn't see that before...I was umming and ahhhing over where to post for ages :)

[emochild]

I retrained as a mature student and I'm currently in my nqt year at a special school

I did the 3 year primary education degree with QTS and did my 2nd and 3rd year placements in special schools -however the rules have now changed and qts now cannot be awarded without a certain number of weeks in mainstream

I'm not the only teacher at my school that came to it late -our head certainly values a bit of life experience

In our area there are autism specialist centres, in the neighbouring LEA there are specific ASD classes within a generic special school so it would be worth looking at what your local offer is and seeing if you can get some experience -this will also give you chance to talk about employment opportunities in your area as they do vary wildly around the country