I’m a sahm to two dcs. I have a degree, (mediocre mark in a European language & humanities), from a top notch university. After I graduated we had to move around a bit with dh’s job, so I just took anything I could find. Mainly admin, HR support, hospitality and retail. I had quite a good admin job when I had dc1 but then the industry I was working in took a total nosedive and my office closed, so I was made redundant. Since then, dc2 has come along and dc1 is about to start school.
I’ve been looking recently for ways to get back to work.
I have looked into things like nursing. But, as wonderful as it sounds, I just don’t think we could make it work. I’d probably get another student loan to cover the fees, (as it is one of the courses where the student loans company will do this apparently), but then we’d need to pay for childcare as we have no regular help from family.
Where we live, dc2 alone would cost close to £16,000 per year, for full time childcare (somewhere around £15,600). Then we would need wrap around care for dc1 for before and after school. Then there would be the school holidays. So, by the time I actually qualified as a nurse we’d have spent a lot of money to get me there and then I’d have even more student debt. I’m not sure we can justify it.
I don’t know if I’d qualify for any grants etc as our household income is too high, (so fair enough), and since I’ve already got one degree.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about studying beauty therapy. Although it’s obviously very different to nursing, I can see some similarities, like caring for the wellbeing of clients, studying the anatomy, just making people feel better, being a hands on job etc. I have always been interested in beauty and make up etc, but never seriously considered it as a career before now.
I may be way off the mark and I’m really just brainstorming here, but does anyone have any experience of training as a beauty therapist in late(r) life? I’m not exactly ancient, (36), but compared to some people who start training in beauty therapy at the age of 16, I might be!
It would be a shorter course I think, with less demanding hours and would be much cheaper, which are plus points. Also, after I qualify, I have read that it can be quite a flexible job in some cases, which would work well round my family.
I have also thought about becoming a carer, as that is closely allied to nursing, but the areas of nursing that I really wanted to eventually do were quite different to the caring jobs which seem to come up in my area. It wouldn’t be a stepping stone to nursing as I truly think that’s off the table for the foreseeable future as it’s just too prohibitive financially. I would be being a ‘career carer’, if that’s the right term, so I don’t want to do that unless it is something I’m truly passionate about.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.