AiBU to question if there is ANY job / career recommended...

[Allforall]

... With decent-ish pay and part time hours.

I have a degree from a good uni, I'm currently looking at social work or teaching, but both have pretty awful reputations.. (no work /life balance, stressful etc etc)

My youngest starts school in septmeber and has a diagnosis of ASD so I am contemplating holding off until his second year of school before I even train? As I k ow these programmers are very intense?

I am happy to do a year of full time to gain a course qualification, but thereafter I wish to work part time whilst the kids are in primary...

Regulators. Gambling commission, SRA, Legal Ombudsman, OFWAT, ICO etc.

May be able to come in fairly junior and work way up.

Sorry, 25,000 is a starting wage I'd Co sister to be good, 30, 000 is good money once working in the field for a while, to me anyway!

Consider *

I normally write better than this, honest! Hahah

May be worth checking what jobs your local unis have. They sometimes have part time roles

Thank you for all the civil service suggestions, but it's actually made me realise I couldn't do jobs like that. My true passion is working with those with additional needs, particularly in an educational setting.

Reading and researching all of these suggestions has made me realise why I wanted to get into teaching or social work in the first place - I enjoy that type of work!

Certainly not knocking all the fab suggestions thrown my way, but I am not passionate about much, but helping vulnerable children or adults is always something I enjoy and could see me doing for yesrs to come.

(not passionate about much work wise, I mean)

Then you have the calling! Do it :)

Good luck.

I’m a social services worker. I came back after maternity and asked for PT. It’s unlikely in children services but can be done in fostering or in adult services. So dont rule out too much. Work life balance is hard in any job but you’re an autonomous worker so you pick a lot of how to fit visits in etc

Do you want £25k for part time hours or £25k full time equivalent?

I know you mention you're not going for the civil service but a word of warning anyway, the salary you start on is where you stay, unless you get another job. I am far from badly paid but am annoyed I've been on the same salary, bottom of the grade for years now. If I got the next grade up I'd get a 10k pay rise. It is madness imo.

OP I am in a similar position as yourself but my eldest DS is on AS and my DD is 2.5 years old. I considered retraining as an educational psychologist by first completing a distance conversion course recognised by the British Psychologist associtation whilst doing some voluntary work at local schools and then a PhD. An educational psychologist works with children and young adults with SEND as well as schools to come up with strategies to facilitate their learning and even school behavioural policies.

I am still trying to get as much information as possible in regards to this so if there is anyone who is an educational psychologist then please feel free to chime in. Maybe this profession would be of interest to you OP?

25000 full time equivalent, sorry.

Minimalist I would love to be an Ed psych but I don't have the time or money to do another degree and I assume you would have to have a degree in psychology

Hi I’m a social worker part time. My advice would be that the 2 year training (if you have a degree) and the post qualifying first year could be difficult with kids and will need to be full time. Depending on where you live and whether children, adults or mental health, there could be a good demand for jobs.
We moved area last year, I had a nice cushy compressed hours scenario in the borough I’d been working in for 7 years, none of that on offer in the new borough as they didn’t know me!
I ended up working through an agency, applying for ft roles then negotiating 4 days. Very happy with it now. In a hard to recruit team though in a hard to recruit area though which helps. You usually need at least 2 years pq experience to be able to register with an agency.
It’s not that easy but I know lots of mums that are in social work (adults). I love my job too most of the time!

Thank you, pinkpanther.

I have researched social work endlessly and concluded I'd only realistically be able to do the 14 Month Programme, the 2 year ones include residential summer stays which I couldn't do with my family life and wouldn't want to either.

A social work Masters is two years. Or you can either look at Front Line (also two years and you’ll need a good degree classification to be considered) or Step Up To Social Work, which also requires relevant qualifications and experience.

It’s hard work, but I studied alongside parents on my social work degree, so it’s possible.

Op, social work but go into either a children with disabilities team or adoption team. Both have much better work life balances, more manageable caseloads and more predictable hours. Also, after 5 years or so you can look at independent reviewing officer jobs which suit some parents as it's more working from home (they chair and review child protection conferences and looked after child reviews)

Thanks poster, I'd love to be a social worker for kids with disabilities. If social work is the way I go, I'd definitely like to specialize in that area.

Oratoria, I am going to apply to the Step Up Programme, as it's only 14 months and not as intense as the Frontline course

Cool. Do you have previous paid or voluntary experience working with children? From what I know, Step Up can be quite competitive, so s certainly worth polishing up your CV nice and early 😊