Online courses that have improved your job opportunities

[Whoknew76]

I need to gain more qualifications for job opportunities. I currently only work very part time doing admin work. My poor husband has been diagnosed with cancer and this has made realise that I need to contribute more to the household income. The next few months will be really tough with 6 weeks of chemo and radiotherapy. I’m lucky I can be with him and take him to appointments etc. He will probably be sleeping a lot and I want to be by his side but thought I could do some sort of online course. Anyone recommend any please.

Sorry to hear about your husband. What sort of area do you/do you want to work in?

Sorry to hear about your husband.
It may not be the right time to take more on.
However leadership and management courses would be beneficial to any role no matter where you are on the ladder.

I have always worked in administration but had a long break after children. My salary is the minimum wage so I was wondering if anyone could recommend any qualifications that could improve my prospects. I have A levels but no further education. Open any new ideas though that might consider. Many thanks

Would you consider an Open University degree? With most of them, I think you can qualify for a diploma after you've done a certain number of the modules, even if you don't proceed to other modules for a full degree. Have a look at their website to see what they do - and you might be entitled to fee remissions if you are on a low income.

Also look at Futurelearn courses online (just search on google) - their courses might be of interest, too. Have you a local careers service you could approach for advice or an FE/HE College?

Wishing your husband well and good luck with your further studies, OP.

I don't know if it would be useful at all but you can bump up your skills in things like Excel on a website called GCFGlobal. I once did all their Excel training and then at a recruitment agency the next day I almost got full marks on their Excel test. It's a good website generally for all kinds of skills. All free of charge.

I'm doing an OU degree, currently in year 5 of 6. In the early days just saying I was doing the degree improved my career even before I had completed the first year.

Could you do an apprenticeship? Lots of places do apprenticeships in things like data which should help your career prospects and it tends to be fairly flexible after too.

Have a look on here: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/find-a-course/page?searchTerm=&distance=10%20miles&town=&orderByValue=Relevance&startDate=Anytime&courseType=Online&courseHours=&courseStudyTime=&filterA=true&page=1&D=0&coordinates=&campaignCode=LEVEL3_FREE&qualificationLevels= you can filter to online only, evening classes etc. There are lots of different ones but the most generally useful are probably the management and computer skills type ones, unless you have a specific skill you want to build up or new career path to follow.

A lot of the digital skills bootcamps are also online: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-a-skills-bootcamp

I'm first year of six and I agree it's a great way to help improve your prospects for jobs later on. It takes a lot of commitment doing the degree round family life and/or work commitments.

Wishing your DH a speedy recovery OP. Take care of him but also yourself.

F