Social worker or teacher?

[Imustbemad00]

I’m thinking of going to uni, I’m in a job that pays little and goes nowhere although it suits my family right now. I don’t want to be there forever though and there’s no room for progression.
I want to stay in a similar field (partly beciase I don’t want to start from square one)
I don’t even know if full time uni is possible as I’m a single parent and wouldn’t be able to live off student loans alone and don’t know how universal credit would work. I probably wouldn’t start until next academic year now so I’ve time to decide and do some volunteering in the mean time.
Would I be unreasonable to try and study for these jobs, not sure I’m capable? Would these jobs even be possible for a single parent? Youngest would probably be 11 by the time I qualified though?

A bit random, but the other job I’d considered is accountant. But I’d literally be starting from scratch. All I have is a pass in GCSE maths

You could look at doing AAT or the equivalent taxation technician qualification (ATT?). I think it can be done at a college .Most people are working in an Accountancy practice on day release, and get paid while doing it. If you decide to go on to ACA or ACCA or CTA you get some exemptions from the Exams.
Maybe approachlocal accountants for advice?

What age group teaching might you be interested in ? Could you ask whoever you did your level 3 with what the best progression route would be.

Have you considered probation work? Its well-paid, its about helping people, and its really interesting.

I am a Part Time social worker in ADULT services with 3 kids 5 and under. Its very challenging to manage a caseload that required full time attention in only half the week. However I do like the escape from mum life and a different sense of role and responsibility.
I think the training and the job changes you, some for the better some for the bad. I see many people unable to cope with the demand and stress. Sickness is a big issue. I know a number of teachers also. The ones who appear committed and conciencous seem to put in a hell of a lot of work at evenings and weekends.

Id say SW has more scope to be flexible. If you can manage your caseload youmay be left alone. Teaching your in a class room all day. It would drive me nuts. They are both def a vocation.
I wish I had done hairdressing. Flexible with kids, requires some counselling type skills with a more positive outcome.
Good luck with decision making

Have you can becoming a careers adviser? It's kind of the middle ground between teacher and social worker and there are a number of different levels of qualifications. There is a skills shortage at the moment and the national careers service are willing put people through the lower level qualifications while you work. They can act as stepping stones to the higher quals once you have experience

Sorry for the short reply, I was at work.
Being truthful I think the only reason I’m picking those 2 jobs is because they are somewhat related to what I do now. I don’t know what else I like or am good at because I’ve never done anything else.
I’d lean more towards social worker than teacher, but admittedly I do not know a great deal about it and I know it’s stressful.
The other problem, as mentioned, is whether I can either afford to go to university. I absolutely can’t id my UC would be completely cut. From what I’ve read I’d still be entitled but I’m not sure how much or how it’d work when student loans were paid termly in lump sums.

I don’t think accountant is an option, I don’t even know if I’d like it or my brain is capable and it’s definitely miles away from what I’m doing now. I couldn’t fit training around my job.

I’m thinking to do some support worker volunteering for a while and see if I like it and gain some experience.

I just want to get to a point, where in maybe 4 years when my kids don’t need me to work term time so much anymore, I can go and do something else for myself and potentially earn a better wage.

If teaching it would be primary or early years, but I’m aware that for primary I need a science gcse and I really don’t fancy doing that.

I’d also consider management in nurseries but to be honest although a degree of some kind helps, it’s more about the skills and experience, which I’ll have trouble gaining.

Being truthful I think the only reason I’m picking those 2 jobs is because they are somewhat related to what I do now.

I’m presuming you work in a preschool or nursery?

Don’t limit yourself to two incredibly stressful career choices-why would you?!

Yes I do. I do like the sound of social work or support type work with more responsibility.
I genuinely don’t know what else I could do starting from scratch.
I’d be happy to earn 25-30k, short term with room for progression. I don’t know what I can do, or what I’m good at. I try to look st job adverts and salaries and skills required but I don’t even know how to narrow down searches.

I'm a qualified Social Worker and now manage a Child Protection team. I'd be more than happy to ask you any questions you have about the job and my career path.

Funnily enough I was torn between Social Work and teaching, but went with Social Work for the following reasons:

• Less restrictive than teaching (more flexibility with holidays, working from home etc).

• Better pay on qualifying.

• Greater career progression opportunities.

• More capacity to make a difference without having to focus on meeting teaching targets.

Just my opinion though!

I've just quit teaching after 16 years. It's very stressful! I don't think social work is a piece of cake either. Good luck :)

Two family members are accountants they earn way more than my teachers salary and they love it

I’m a teacher and I really enjoy it.

If I thought I had (or had a reasonable chance of developing) the skills in maths I would be an accountant in a heart beat. Well paid, loads of variety.

Mmm, tricky options. You need to find out about finance first. Social work, imo, is more flexible. If you're happy to work, for example, in a residential social work position, you can earn 30K - less stress, but shift work. Statutory social work has good career progression but is very stressful and mentally draining. In the early years, particularly in CP work, you might be placing kids in emergency placements late into the night miles away.
Teaching also stressful but perhaps gets less stressful once you are more experienced but I think there are less options for well paid 'sideways' moves.

What about occupational therapy? In demand, salaries similar to social workers (a bit higher than teaching), generally short term, planned work and definitely less stressful. You'll need a good maths gcse I think.

I earn 60k as an accountant, and even when just qualified earned 30. Plus you study while you work (although I have a degree too).

I was a teacher in a comprehensive school for 30 years. I fell into teaching. After completing my degree I didn't know what I wanted to do so chose to do a PGCE year just so I had something to "fall back on". The minute I stood in front of a class I knew this was what I wanted to do and I never regretted it. Yes there were times I was frustrated and exhausted but mostly I loved it. Some pupils were challenging but I liked that - I would plan and work out how I could get them onside. It's a demanding and sometimes frustrating job but hugely rewarding. Some of my pupils are now my friends - I've just come back from celebrating an ex pupil's 50th birthday at a festival. When I had student teachers to mentor I always knew the ones that would love teaching and be good at it - not the academic ones, not even the hard working ones - it was the ones with personality, empathy, and a love of life. If that's you it's the best job in the world.

@topcat2014 I literally know nothing about being an accountant or what it entails. It’s just something people told me I should do when I was younger because I was good at maths. I say my maths gcse a couple of years ago (didn’t finish school) and struggled as I’m so rusty and had forgotten most things, but definitely still ‘get it’.
The problem is, as a single parent, I need to be working minimum 16 hours to get my universal credit so any studying for accountancy would need to fit around my current job. My current job is term time and I need to keep that for at least a few years really. Would like to have a qualification by the time that comes around.
I might be absolutely rubbish on an accountants course. I wonder if there’s taster courses?

@cgp123 Thanks. I’ve worked with disadvantaged families and always think I’d like to be more involved, help more. Beciase I work with children, I think I’d like to work in CP but I don’t know anything about other areas of social work so can’t really say. I’m also not sure how I’d cope emotionally as I do get attached.l to the children.
Is it really difficult to get into? Are the hours really that unsociable? By the time I qualified my kids would be around 12 and 18!

I don’t know if I’m clever enough to get through a degree anymore

I’m a Child Protection Social Worker and I love my job. But it is blimmin’ hard there’s no denying that.

I work on a duty team which means we have to complete the first assessments within 45 working days before it transfers to a long term social worker (if required). We have duty week every 4 weeks (differs depending on authority). The way it works for us is that when we aren’t on duty week, we’ll have a duty rota which means we cover emergencies if they crop up on the cases of others. When it’s duty week, there’ll be a duty worker and a back up. If a section 47 comes in, we must go out in pairs. If further section 47s come in, then they’ll look at additional team members to support. Realistically, you can expect to be out late late during duty week but not so much others if there is an emergency.

Whilst we have standard 9-5 hours, obviously family life doesn’t always work around this so on some nights, you’ll be out later than 5 if after school visits are required. There should be some flexibility in your work hours and you’ll be able to take toil back.

Things that can make it especially stressful is a lack of resources. Eg I work in an area where domestic violence seems to be in every other case that comes through the door. Plenty of resources are available for victims but none for perpetrators so there isn’t really anything that will actually target the problem. There is a service that supports children who’ve witnessed domestic violence which is great but realistically the waiting list is 1 year long.

Also, unrealistic expectations of management. We all try our best to adhere to statutory requirements but sometimes you just have to accept there is only so many hours in the day.

It really is a job where you just don’t know where your head will be at from one day to the next. It’s peaks and troughs and it can change daily. Not so long ago I had a meltdown and hid in the toilet crying because I was so overwhelmed with my manager cracking the whip saying this needs doing that needs doing. I’d been going in work for 7 and leaving no earlier than 7 but it still wasn’t enough. She finally sat me down and said that I had too many families allocated and that is why the workload is unmanageable. It’s can be very frustrating because feedback from management usually puts the onus back on the social worker by saying ‘you need to manage your time better’ and there’s nothing more insulting than that when your caseload is high, you’re working all the hours and not even sitting down for a lunch break.

Ultimately though, I don’t regret coming into the profession because I love meeting families and when you really connect and make a difference then it makes it all worthwhile. I also like knowing that when it’s time to close the door on Child Protection, it will have opened lots more doors for me.

I’d say trust your gut OP and prepare for a rollercoaster of emotions

Op there's a new route into social work, a social work apprenticeship. It's only open to people in related jobs - in practice its essentially training on the job. It might be worth seeing if your local council are doing it, and if so you could consider applying for a different role with them and express interest in this.
I work in childrens services, and the most family friendly roles tend to be in fostering or children with disabilities. Those are areas people often move to from other depts when they have children. Both still will have times when you're working on a laptop at home, but there's less of the unpredictable working late away from home. One particular thing that is difficult in children's services (excluding the above teams) for childcare is that you're mainly visiting children after school, so that automatically means your day run over even if you're not dealing with an emergency - eg if you need to see a child who gets home on the bus at 4.30, they + family keep you talking for over an hour and it's the opposite side of town to where you live...
For that reason, fostering and cwd are easier to manage as you can usually spread your visits throughout the day.

Don't worry if you don't feel 'academic' plenty of social workers aren't but if you're prepared to put the work in you'll get through the training.

Social work degree followed by pgce if you end up wanting to teach

@Imustbemad00

Is it hard to get in to...? There's a national shortage of social workers at the moment, so once you're qualified you're pretty much guaranteed a job!

In terms of being academic enough to pass a degree.... There's loads of support at uni to help with essays etc. I only got a 2:2 in my degree and once I had my job my degree grade genuinely didn't matter. No ones ever even asked what grade I got!

Are the hours unsociable...? After school visits end up being needed with lots of families, but like someone else has said you can work flexibly and take the time back. Before I was a manager I did less evening work than my friends and brother in law who are teachers! There will be the odd night where you work way beyond normal hours (Tuesday I was in court from 9am then didn't get home until 10pm as I had to take a baby to a foster placement). But this is rare, and just part of the job.

It does depend on the authority though. I work in a deprived area that is a failing authority and whilst people can arrange their own diaries to do things like attend appointments, the reality is we all finish anywhere between 5.30 and 8pm on a 'standard' day, with most people working bits at home when there's paperwork due. We have to log when we're setting off home (group message, for safety reasons/lone working) and realistically most people are responding to it after 5.30/6pm for a routine day.

Two differerent jobs, which do you prefer. Look into both. I know when I looked and sw they wanted some voluntary work. Which area of swas well cp or children in care or disabilities?

Im a social worker and have been for over 9 years. I love it but i dont think its family friendly, in fact im considering other options as i have recently had a baby and dont think it will work particularly well. Your children will be older though...

The hours can be tough, ive not got home till midnight on a couple of occasions. Worked over weekends, and when im meant to be on holiday. Yet i still love spending time with my familes.