Retraining in early forties

[Carlie97]

I am in my early forties. I am thinking of a career change since my organisation has gone into the redundancy process. If I'm selected, I won't have a big payit, just enough for two months worth of bills, if that. My interests are cooking, the coast and gardening. I'd also be interested in working in the medical field, perhaps for the NHS. I don't have medical training or knowledge, but lots of admin/PA experience.

Is it worth retraining at my age? I couldn't go to university as I don't have the funds and I don't think I'd qualify for a student loan (my credit rating isn't great), so it would be part time study at the college around whatever work I'm in at the time. Am I too old to retrain?

Of course not! I qualified as a Midwife at 40 and I wasn’t the oldest in my cohort.
I don’t think student loans use your credit rating so definitely worth looking into university (if that is something you fancy doing).

Thank you very much @FeelingSadToday1 . Could I ask, in your opinion, do universities take previous work experience into consideration rather than qualifications. I left school with 11 GCSE’s but mostly at grade D.

I’m 51 and in July will graduate as a doctor and begin work in August. Also, student loans are not based on a credit rating. Everyone is entitled.

Absolutely. I had to do an Access course for Midwifery but I am not sure if this would be the same for other courses.

Wow @Jumpeduppantrygirlthat is incredible. Good luck to you.

You’d definitely need to do an access course, you also need maths, English and often science at gcse level…..some universities will accept functional skills level 2 instead of a gcse pass.

if university was something you wanted then an Access course is worth while.

When you say medical what kind of thing interests you? Or do
you mean working for the nhs in general?

You could also consider apprenticeship options.

You have lots of options. What would you like?

@Jumpeduppantrygirl this is incredible!! Congratulations! I still remember the times when med schools would say no to anyone over 30. V shortsighted of them.