What should a 37 year old mum of 3 retrain as?

[NickyHeath]

I’m thinking about retraining as something - actually it’s just training as I don’t think my previous humanities degrees & patchy job history really count as being trained for anything We can afford for me not to be earning for a few years while retraining.

What would you do? Things I’ve thought of are law, teaching, social work... I’m numerate in the sense of GCSE grade B, but things like accountancy are not for me. I’m very good at reading/research, writing, get on well with people. My ideal job would give me flexibility to be at the school gates a few days a week, but wouldn’t be based from entirely from home - colleagues are important to me.

What should I look into?

I work in HR and an admin position in a lot of public sector organisations would meet your criteria. I would recommend you retrain until you actually have the job though- a lot of employers will find CIPD qualifications.

I started in HR about 15 years ago on 12k per year and am now on £72k - I have completed a level 7 qual and separate employment law masters though so it's not been cheap or easy!

Op you r got to start admitting to the mistakes you’ve made in this. You’ve said yourself that that makes in your family havnt been positive and now your dd is walking those footsteps.

She’s still so young even though she might not look it but you still have responsibility for her. Stopping him from coming to the house doesn’t mean she will be shagging in bushes. Put boundaries down for her own protection.

@Barbiesdocmartins Wrong thread?

What industry is around where you live OP? Do you want just any job or an actual career?

I recently did this and started in the civil service in a random role. Already earning £10k more than in my previous job for less stress, more flexibility and an incredible pension.

@Unihorn which random role did you get in with? Following this with interest as I have same skills and interests as OP.

Instructional design/learning technology?

Instructional design, learning and development.

It's a growing industry since covid, as elearning has come into its own with remote learning.

@qualitygirl yeah it’s a bit of a problem for me that there isn’t really any industry where I live - there’s the NHS, schools & the district council, plus tourism/care/retail. There are two universities in my (largely rural) county, both a bit over an hour away from me. Eg occupational therapy as mentioned upthread just isn’t an option because I can’t train in it. Feel a bit stuck.

Did you retrain @Unihorn?

Yes I agree @IanHBuckells an admin role in the public sector would suit me well, but that is hen’s teeth right now! I keep an eye out...

How do you get into that @Cornishmumofone @EShellstrop ?

@NickyHeath it was a set training program, similar to the apprenticeships they sometimes run. An apprenticeship may be worthwhile looking into actually, with the civil service or other companies such as Deloitte or PWC? I was happy to take an initial paycut to have more future opportunities and flexibility, and a proper pension.

DPG does a level 3 course, which is a good start.

Read through the requirements for current jobs available, get a solid understanding of adult learning models, instructional design tools, and simple graphics design like Canva. You can build a portfolio by selling your courses independently, or volunteering. Look for L&D admin roles with companies that encourage growth. Good luck!

I don’t think teaching would allow you to be at the school gates for your own children unless you worked part time. We opened doors at 3:15pm and it was often gone 3:45 before everything was done and dusted. Parents will want to speak to you and we had to leave the doors open until 3:30 for late parents before we could take children to the office to wait.

At my school we were all ‘strongly encouraged’ to teach an after school club one day a week which teachers did happily as it was a lovely place to work and very accommodating in exchange.

I could probably count the number of times I left school before 4:30 on my hands and I wasn’t really a 50/60-hour-a-week kind of teacher. Hence only lasting 5 years!

Contract administrator for a construction firm or other. Maybe formation as well. Or procurement.

nursing of healthcare?
there are grants now, to help with full time/part time education at university

Coding bootcamp. Web developer jobs are increasingly flexible (lots are full time wfh) and you can earn a high salary quite quickly. Needs more women too!

Agree with a pp that if you are logical (even if not into technical stuff), cyber skills or tech qualifications can be really well paid and very flexible because they are in demand. Ruby on Rails is a language in particular shortage right now, an old friend of mine retrained a couple of years ago (also a humanities background) and is now really happy and working very flexibly.

Admin is a big risk specifically because of those tech needs, the numbers of jobs are continually shrinking as more is automated and cost cuts come.

Otherwise lots of health-related things, another friend retrained as a Speech and Language Therapist and loves it.

Do either of the 2 universities local to you offer any health related courses leading to a registration? Physio, speech and language, dietician etc ?

Definitely not law - I'm a lawyer, it's taken me 15 years to get to a high enough level to get any kind of relative flexibility, and the pay is OK but not amazing, the job is stressful and getting a training contract is very competitive. Plus the degree is 15% fascinating and 85% incredibly dry, in my opinion!

MBA Healthcare

Become an NHS manager or contracts manager after that.

Look at the two Universities near you, any virtual open day information that appeals to you or events coming up?

Apprenticeships can be a good way to study without getting into debt and learn real skills.

I'm in pharma and there are lots of roles for you skillset, it's not just white coats and test tube! Good job security too.

I wouldn't recommend law either. You'd need to do 2 years more at uni (more if studying part time) the courses being extremely hard (with multiple people failing / dropping out) and costing circa £20k. Then you need to do a 2 year training contract, which are (a) often poorly paid (b) highly competitive with hundreds competing for one spot- you may not get a training contract after years of applying (c) your peers will be early - mid 20s and will not have families so will be able to work all hours god sends. You will not be on an even playing field with them.

When you qualify the long hours, competitive nature of the job and pressure are definitely definitely not compliant with your wish to pick up kids from the school gate!

For anyone who starts young and has time to get established and THEN have a family, it is more do-able.

Something like occupational therapy or speech and language therapy sounds good. Lovely working hours.

Podiatry?