Retraining at 40

[WhatDoesTheFutureHold]

Has anyone changed their career path at 40+? How challenging/easy was it to find a job in your new field?

I'll be 40 when my youngest DC starts nursery and considering the pension age keeps being pushed up and up, I'll still have many working years ahead of me.

I don't want to return to my old industry and my degree has provided more transferable skills than qualifying me for a particular role (without further training which I don't want to do). I'll have had a 3 year career break by this point so will effectively be starting from scratch.

I don't have a specific job in mind (still have a couple of years to ponder this). Just wondering if it's worth retraining at this stage?

I went back to college at 43 to retrain and I now work in that industry. So glad I did and there were plenty of us in our 40’s in the class.

OP you may not know there’s a dedicated Mature Study and Retraining board on MN - specifically started to engage with exactly this question. Countless threads. Have a look:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

And yes, of course retraining at 40+ is worth doing! I know plenty of people who took postgrad degrees or retrained in their 50s and 60s - and went on to meaningful careers.

Totally. My mum was 40 when she started new undergraduate studies, she graduated when I was 15! It gave her massive salary&pension boost.

I'm going back to uni in sept to retrain and I'll be 39 by then. I'll be almost 40 by the time I start my new career.

It's a job I can continue to do for as long as I like. I'll be self employed so can flex up and down. I'll have at least 20 years of doing it if I want.

It’s not too old at all. I would research carefully though and choose something that people aren’t already leaving in droves, eg teaching.

Thanks for all the replies, good to know it isn't a fruitless task.

@QuaterMiss I wasn't aware that there was a subsection for this topic, thanks for the link, I'll have a look.

I really, really wish MNHQ would publicise it a little. Finding viable and attractive routes back into a career after caring responsibilities must surely be one of the biggest issues on a nominally parent focussed site. And “Am I too old?” is the question everyone in this situation asks. There was no dedicated space to share queries, information, experiences until MN users lobbied for it about a couple of years ago. It’s intended for everyone who asks that question.

MNHQ will always move a thread there if the OP asks, or if someone else points out that a thread might be better placed there - but still, most posters don’t know it exists.