Accountant or Maths Teacher career change - mid-40's?

[Valkyrie99]

Posting in AIBU for traffic as not getting response elsewhere.

I have worked in IT for the last 20 years. I'm now in mid-40's. I had to give up FT work to look after young DC and have lost my techy skills rendering me unemployable in IT. I am still doing a part-time job in IT resourcing but feeling the need to think about something that will give me better employability prospects in the future.

So i'm looking to re-train as either :-

1. Accountancy/finance officer/bookeeping/treasurer role. Worked for a relative over 25 years ago, doing purchase ledger work and accounts admin in school holidays. Thought it was ok. I'm happy to pay and study for CIMA or ACCA to become part-qualified before looking for work. However, not sure how easy it would be to get a job in my 40's without any experience ? Especially part-time work ?

2. Maths Teacher - i love Maths and always enjoyed helping others However, I have a lot of stress at home as have a child with SN, so fear that this will just add to my stress load. I would have to do a PGCE/SCITT part-time. And i would only be able to work part-time as a Maths teacher. Not really sure whether a school would employ me as a part-time Maths teacher ?

Any advice from Mumsnetters welcome.

I made a career change when I was 40. I used to be an accountant for a manufacturing company and I retrained as a Maths teacher. I did my PGCE in a year and was offered a teaching role at a state comprehensive. I'm now Head of Maths at the same school. I love teaching and am much happier.
The end of year financial stress as an accountant was horrendous and much more stressful than teaching. There is a lot of marking, lesson prep. and associated paperwork with teaching but the majority of it can be done at home so it doesn't seem as much a chore.
I would definitely advise teaching. Even if a you struggle to find a part time job teaching then you could do supply teaching or teaching at a 6th form college (a few collegues have gone down this route to reduce their teaching hours).
Go for it, I don't think you will regret it.
Good luck whatever you decide.

Accountant definitely. I’ve worked at a big 4 firm and also trained as a teacher. Teaching is awful, and I think you will struggle with an sn child. I didn’t see my children at all during the pgce and regret doing it.

I decided accountancy wasn’t for me, but completely different. I think they will both be hard work and stressful but i think accountancy is more manageable.

Good luck! X

I'm a part time maths teacher!
I wouldn't let the fact you'd need to be part time stop you, I've never had a problem with part time role availability. However, it is stressful and hard work and with extra stress at home it does sound a lot..

Why can’t you update your techy skills? Surely easier and more profitable than training as a maths teacher?

I work part time as a maths teacher. In term time it’s still nearly 40 hours a week (I’m just over 0.6).

thank you, this is really helping me.

68Anon - Qualification wise for Maths Teacher - what sort of A'Level grade and degree class would you look for when recruiting ?

There’s a desperate shortage of maths teachers so if you are a qualified maths teacher you won’t have a problem getting a job, so long as you aren’t picky about schools.

No idea about England but in Scotland there's a shortage of Maths teachers and you'd find a job pretty easily, part time or not. The problem is that even a part time teacher will find that the hours they actually need to put in to do all the associated admin bollocks is far from part time. It's most definitely not stress-free.

Again, can't talk about England but due to the teacher shortages in Scotland they offer a bursary (I think £20k) for people doing teacher training in STEM subjects if you have been working for 3 out of the last 5 years.

In Scotland they want a 2:1 honors degree in the subject, but there is some flexibility.

noblegiraffe - can only re-train if already in a large company and are allowed to move from one team to another. IT is also very ageist and sexist. We get made redundant a lot. The older you get, the harder it is to get a job as they want you to be able to fit in with the 20-something techies. I also can't do the hours - i used to do lots of overnight/oncall/weekend working. Unpredictable hours.

If you’re looking for a part time training route, if you’re in the right area nowteach.org.uk is part time training (4 days) and specifically for older career changers.

Doubtful that your it skills are the reason you're not getting interviews/job offers.

It's more likely to be the way your cv is worded and how you are coming across at interview.

If you still want to stay in your sector then look at investing in sessions with a career coach or similar.

Otherwise if there is another reason why you want to leave the sector that you've not mentioned in your op, carry on

If you've worked in IT have you considered teaching Computing Science? Also a shortage area.

Do NOT teach! It saps every ounce of energy and self esteem from you and makes you paranoid!! I cannot warn you enough x

Thanks noble. I will take a look.

It does worry me that 0.6 ends up being 40 hours. That's part of why i think accountancy/accounts assistant may be better as, at least I will get paid for the 40 hours or i if i'm part-time i wont actually have to do work in my time off.

How many hours do you think full-time Maths teachers have to do ?

X post

RemainOptimistic - i do not want to stay in IT. I have historically always performed very well in interviews so that's not the problem. The problem is that the software product that i was familiar with is becoming obsolete and there are very few companies that use it. If you want to stay in IT you have to be prepared to completely re-invent yourself every few years, a bit like Madonna, by constantly learning and becoming an expert in new software. You cannot just learn something at home and expect to get a job, as companies want experienced personal, unless they are hiring for 20-something graduates. Also the hours require 27*7 oncall, overnight working and weekends. I can't do that anymore.

Thanks Euphemism. I would prefer teaching Maths than Computer Science.

Not sure what area of IT you are in OP - from the mention of on-call it sounds like support/ops. (I have never done on call in my time in IT - have always worked in software development roles, and have several part-time mothers working for me.)

But it may be worth looking at returner programmes? I agree some areas of IT have a problem with ageism/unrealistic working hours, but it's still possible to find some decent companies.

OTOH if you basically want to get away from tech, ignore this. Wasn't sure from previous posts whether you still had a liking for tech or not.

Oops - crosspost. Sorry OP - sounds pretty clear you want out of IT!

Good luck!

I'm a teacher and dh is an accountant. I work part time but definitely do more hours than him. I usually leave him in bed and
start at 5.30/ 6 am. I would say however, and think he would agree, that I have a greater level of job satisfaction.

teaching is totally incompatible with motherhood

"teaching is totally incompatible with motherhood"
Absolute rubbish. Its certainly not an easy option but the holidays alone can make it more viable than many careers where you have to magic up childcare for weeks in the school holidays.

depends on your school I suppose, but my experience of the holidays....

1. I never got an Easter holiday
2. Half terms never synched up, even for the days I didn't have to go in to work
3. My summer holiday started and finished two weeks earlier than my kids, and i was required to be in school both before, after and during the both the A levels and the GCSE results arrival, so even if we did have 4 weeks that overall matched, I was in work for two of them

I'm still a teacher, my school starts at 7.30. There are not nurseries or child minders available for anyone that lives more than half an hour away. We are required to remain on the premises until 6pm, so ditto in the evenings...

Most staff are on the premises before 6.30, if your printing isn't in the queue by then it won't get done.

O and did I mention no sick pay, no maternity leave, no unions, no time off to care for sick children.

There is not one single mother working at my school, it isn't possible.

I'm a mother, obviously, but my children are adults. They still complain they don't see enough of me though, because I work too many hours

I’m a teacher and would say that the first couple of years of teaching are the hardest because you have to plan all your lessons from scratch. Just something to take into account even if you are part time. For what it’s worth I’m fairly happy teaching part time, I did find full time teaching too much with a young family personally. It’s good to have the school holidays off too.

Also if you train as a teacher in a shortage subject, it’s worth asking if full time posts could be part time for the right applicant. I did this and found that they were finding it so hard to recruit that they found a way to make a full time post into 0.5 for me.