Does a part time job with prospects exist?!

[sameday2021]

40 yr old mum of 2, recently made redundant and will not be able to get my role in the same industry again part time. It was only through years of service for the same company that I was able to get 3 days per week after kids. Everything similar, without fail, is full time and ads are clearly targeting bright 20-somethings. I've applied for many full time positions stating I'm applying on a part-time/job share basis but getting nowhere - I'm not getting responses, not even a sniff of an interview.

I'm going to have to change industries. I have 20 years of customer service/admin experience/skills. Don't want to get to specific as its outing. I have a high standard of education and a very good degree from a red brick uni but its irrelevant now as so long ago and I don't want to go into that field.

Any ideas what I could do next? I don't mind starting at the bottom, just so long as I can move up to a better paying role over time. The only jobs I can see that are open to part time work with room for progression (albeit minor) are NHS admin and Pharmacy Assistant (training to be a qualified dispenser, and even potentially a technician after many years).

Working in a school is just not for me and I don't think they'd employ me anyway! So that's definitely been ruled out.

Friends have suggested getting a full time job for now with the hope of negotiating part time further down the line but I genuinely can't - My husband works away most of the year and I have very little family childcare to call upon. I can't do more than 3 days per week. I couldn't put my kids in after school club and holiday club every single day, I just couldn't do it. They haven't been used to that and I want to avoid at all costs.

Please, please, any ideas welcome!

As well as civil service and local govt, there's also the combined authorities, such as greater Manchester and Liverpool which tend to have a good range of roles. Again, might be worth signing up to their newsletters...

We aren't civil service (but a gov agency) so ours won't be there. I think ours go on indeed jobs or monster. The jobs can also go under a variety of names, procurement, purchasing, contract management, commercial manager, or category manager. Try here www.cips.org/supply-management-jobs/

Hmm although nothing really coming up in the NW there though, sorry.

When I was made redundant from my part time job I had to go full time for a year then apply for part time. Want easy but we managed it.

Sorry to keep going on about the civil service as I can see others have too, but you said you can't find anything entry level, with 20 years experience and a good degree you don't need to just look at entry level. In my department most graduates join at HEO level, so kind of middle level, but read job descriptions above that too, they are look for transferable skills not specific experience. Also if there's nothing near where you live consider it anyway, even before Covid quite a few people worked from home in various locations and just travelled to the office occasionally if the role isn't public facing.