to ask what I can do with this degree?

[FortifiedWine]

I've recently gained a degree in health and social care. I have so far been offered jobs for domiciliary care agencies, which require no formal qualifications, pay £6.50 an hour (and expect you to pay your own petrol mileage so it works out less than that) and usually zero hours for most of these companies.

Have I made a huge mistake? Ideally I would love to get into midwifery, but as a SP with two DCs under 6, and placements god knows where/unsociable hours/no real childcare outside of school I accepted this in clearing.

What are my options?

What experience do you have in health and social care?
Have you looked at Care co ordinator or field care supervisor or assessor? Or plan towards being a care manager?

Can you do a masters in the field of your interest?

Social work may hold an appeal?

I have noticed quite a few students with these type of degrees going into public health, say with local councils who are now responsible for prevention (smoking, alcohol, addiction services) rather than the NHS.

I think there is an issue though, as it doesn't sound like you will be able to travel much with the childcare issues, and that is problem if you are up against candidates with no children and can travel around to pick up roles.

Most health-care jobs do require additional training, although the people I know who have gone into say elder care now run nursing homes, rather than just being the helpers on the minimum wage.

I think training to be a midwife would be incredibly difficult without say family care for the children, the shifts are 12 hours or more (difficult to run out when person having baby) and it's competitive to get into training.

I've briefly worked in a care agency - quit when they went a week without offering me work then expected me to find childcare at 6am on a Saturday and Sunday. (Single parent, one SN child).

I did however, love the job. Loved caring for people, and had a special place in my hearts for the elderly. When dealing with the management in this place (and another similar company I applied for) I found most of the management to be rude and quite frankly up themselves - to the point where they would not smile back at me when I walked into head office in the mornings, would talk to me like I was dirt because I was a lowly 'care worker' - despite me having spent three years doing this degree. They all seemed to have big posh cars and not do a lot except make us sort out the problems.

Have a look on charity jobs website - for location, try 'home'. Lots of charities have overlap with core health functions and may have flexible, home-based roles. I'm fairly sure there's one relating to women's rights during birth on there at the moment.

You could gain experience there now then go into midwifery with huge insight later when your DC are older.

here

Im doing a PGCE after mine to become a primary school teacher!

blow that was the plan actually - to get this degree, show I have enough competance to undertake midwifery... but then a friend recently told me how a degree 'expires' after five years and it's got me worried. It's going to be 10+ years before DC are old enough to fend for themselves so I can go off and do nightshifts/not worry about school runs/weekend childcare etc. I wonder sometimes why I spent 27k getting myself into debt for this? I figure as (currently) nursing and midwifery tuition fees are paid for, it would be okay as I wouldn't have to worry about finding money upfront for this. I've thought about becoming a doula and being self employed - but again, it's still unsociable hours as you never know when the woman will go into labour!

In what way does a degree expire?! That's a new one on me..

blow when I did my access course into uni, I remember a lot of the older people there were doing it because they had gained their degrees over 10/15 years ago and they were no longer relevant I think? My friend also got a degree, ended up having four children in succession and not working for a fair few years, and being told it wasn't relevant anymore and she'd need to undertake an access to nursing course - but she was too overqualified to do one!

wonderpants I'd love to do a PGCE as a second option. Especially if I could somehow get a job afterwards that involved teaching maybe health and social care to teenagers in secondary - but I know that these jobs are so hard to come by. I know people who did PGCEs and are teaching supply after two years. :(

No, that's not right, degrees don't expire.

I don't work in healthcare but I know there's a lot of CPD involved and you need to keep your registration up to date.

But an actual general 3 year undergraduate degree is essentially a building block to other courses or careers. It can't expire as far as I know.

I graduated in 2000 and did a PGCE 15 years later.

You could teach Health and Social Care in an FE college without any teaching qualifications (or just do the Level 3 qualification, which doesn't take long to achieve). They would rip your arm off, they're desperate for staff.

What about the Altzheimers Society, Mind etc? Agree the charity job website is good.

That's wonderful blow! :) How did you find your PGCE? In particular the work/life balance? At least I know with teaching I'm not going to be called up to work Christmas day I guess! I can cope with extra work outside school hours - I've been a student for five years now, three of those full time. I think I'm having a freak out as there seems to be no jobs where I live (rural west Wales and relocating not an option).

PGCE is full on. Teaching is crap hourly rate once you take into account all of the extra hours.

Seriously, go into the third sector if you have an interest in a particular area because public sector services are being bled dry at the moment.

It doesn't expire as such blow but it is correct that you can't just waltz onto a healthcare degree such as midwifery/nursing with an 'old' degree. I graduated in 2011 (with an arts degree) and have been accepted onto a midwifery degree starting in September... but if my degree had been one year earlier, I would have had to do an access course. Most unis want you to have done academic study within the last 3-5 years. (I currently work for the uni doing admin in the health and social care faculty!)

Also, from September 2017, healthcare degrees will no longer come with a bursary and you will have to take out a loan for the fees (currently they are paid for). The UCAS deadline to get in this year (i.e. with bursary) has been and gone - there may be some spaces for people to get in using Clearing and Extra but due to this bursary/fees thing, applicant numbers this year are high.