How do I better myself?

[Catmemes]

I'm 34 and currently work for little more than minimum wage. I have no qualifications, didn't go to uni, etc. I'm happy in hospitality but I'd like to earn enough to support myself without relying on bloody universal credit. I'm a bit lost so any advice is appreciated! What can I do?

I think you need to set yourself a challenging goal. Then breakdown the steps you need to get there. Do you have any qualifications? If you really have none, look into getting maths and English GCSEs.

What are you interested in? Any dream jobs?

I do have maths and English at least, I just about managed my GCSEs, I just hated school so much, I didn't bother with further education. 😩

As I say, I'm happy working in hospitality, I just need a career with a salary rather than an hourly (low) paid job. I'm looking into events management at the moment.

What qualifications or experience do you need for events management?

That's what I'm trying to find out. There is no other industry I particularly want to work in. Maybe when I was younger, I would have chosen something different but realistically, it's going to make more sense to work with the experience I already have at my age. I've just resigned myself to being paid just more than minimum wage forever and I think I can and should do better. There isn't much in the way of careers advice for adults where I am.

Whoops, name change fail :)

You can do degree apprenticeships in events management. I don't know much about it but I know it's possible, try looking that up to begin with.

Get experience in a wider range of skills. Demonstrating IT and admin skills is essential to pretty much anything, and you may not have that in your current role.

Have you tried expanding what you do in hospitality? Doing management training etc? That would help you demonstrate skills that would allow you to move.

You presumably have excellent customer service skills, which will useful, and ability to work under pressure. What about a job in retail with a company that have a good career development scheme?

OP you may not be aware of the Mature Study and Retraining board, here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

which is full of people finding ways to improve their prospects and fulfil their potential.

(MNHQ are always happy to move threads to the Mature Study board. I only wish people who started threads there had the confidence to return to them …)

For yourself - browsing the nationalcareers.service.gov.uk National Careers Service website would probably be useful. It has details on how to get into an unlimited number of jobs / careers - and questionnaires to help you identify your own skills and interests. They also have actual live careers advisors to whom you can speak by phone.

Thank you, I will :)

@picklemewalnuts that's fair, I'm not remotely tech savvy. I'm doing a taster course soon at a local college so I can at least ask questions about further education, hopefully.

Thank you @TottersBlankly, I'm going to have a look there ASAP.

I made the move into community work by calling some organisations that I liked and asking them what I needed for them to notice my application, then did that qualification and volunteering. I now manage a community development programmes team and will be able to make at least another promotion level without much of a push and then more seniority if I want to go for it/have the aptitude.

I did a level 3 qual online, cost me £1k at the time.

Are you on linked in? Can you follow some events management types and ask how they did it?

The fact that you hated school shouldn't put you off doing any further education, the experiences are very different for a lot of people. There are lots of places (on and offline) where you can study something and fit it in with your work and life.
Does your current employer offer any "on the job" training that could lead you into a promotion at work? In my experience, bigger employers tend to offer more staff development, so you look at moving jobs into a large employer that might offer staff development programmes and training.

Definitely sort your tech out - be able to efficiently admin yourself and some awareness of how social media functions for business.

You could also do some volunteering event management to show you are keen and fill CV gaps.

Try and do an office skills course at your local college, lots are free since the pandemic. They're pretty good, then you could join an agency do they look for work for you