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

I would go and volunteer at a school for a day or so if you’re interested in teaching. It looks like you have a long road to be able to gain all the qualifications you need. If you left school with very few qualifications I’d look back and figure out why. Take a look at a science GCSE revision guide to look at how hard it will be to gain a science GCSE if you want to do primary. Unfortunately I do wonder if your lack of GCSE’s and A levels will hold you back once you’re qualified and job hunting. The view seems to be that because there is a shortage of teachers that schools are grateful for anyone with the correct qualifications and this simply isn’t the case. Teaching is competitive.
If you want to work in secondary then perhaps something pastoral or a cover supervisor might be worth investigating. Don’t worry about how old your kids will be when you’re qualified as the working life is so long now you’ll get plenty of time to use whatever qualifications you do gain.
I would say that before embarking on such a long journey to get qualified you get yourself into a school situation and see the reality of schools today rather than reflecting on your school days and thinking it’ll be the same.
I am a teacher who retrained later in life and it’s doable with kids but not necessarily the most family friendly job in the world. I retrained with 3 young children but it was only a year as I already had a degree. I do like my job overall but sometimes I have to put my job before my family and that’s not good. I also have the backup of a supportive husband and I think that I would have quit my PGCE without him. If you’d always wanted to be a teacher then I think that you’d have enough motivation to get through the tough times but as you seem a little halfhearted about it I’d definitely be cautious about getting out loads of student loans to quit half way, you don’t even seem determined enough to put the effort in to get a science GCSE.
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

I have just remembered a family friendly job that although pays less than a regular social job is family friendly - safeguarding lead! I have a few friends who do this, mainly in larger high schools where that role is non teaching. Those are term time hours.

Look for a Pastoral or Safeguarding/Student Support Worker role in a secondary school...it’s basically education and social care. I’m a Deputy Head and lead a large team of colleagues in these roles - due to cuts everywhere we are basically bridging the gap between school and child protection. (Not all my team are graduates - most just have initiative and compassion as key) All the social workers I work with are amazing but it’s hard work and like schools emotionally draining at times...saying that I’d do nothing else but this job and I find it’s family friendly in the right school with the right approach/culture to looking after staff.

@cardamoncoffee Children with disability teams is fairly straightforward. I did a stint there and it was visiting the families to check their DLA and any other entitlements are up to date, attending DLA tribunals, LA education tribunals, supporting families on to charities etc. Two trusts amalgamated which made the caseload huge, otherwise it wasn't taxing work.

Haven't rtfl yet but just to be clear this definitely is not the case in all authorities. These disability teams can have a lot of safeguarding work and high workload also. What is described above is more likely to be the exception than the rule. I wouldn't go into this field thinking there is any role which is "not taxing", that's not at all realistic.

Have you considered mental health nursing? You could focus on children’s mental health and there are many opportunities within the state and private sectors.
The pay is on par with social workers from what I can see.

@PoodleJ it’s not that o can’t be bothered to put the effort in. 4 years ago I completed my maths and English GCSE and my level 2 and 3 in early years, spending 3 years at
College. I can definitely do it. I just don’t want to revisit gcse again. It feels like going backwards.

You will need Science GCSE for teaching though. I'd advise you to look into it now as you could still start an evening course for this academic year. I've just done mine so I have option of pcge although I only got a 2:2 in Social work and most want a 2:1 ( teaching is competitive)

Children with disability teams do referral and assessment here from first contact. Not an "easier" option.

In definitely drawn more towards social work or any other similar roles

25th year of teaching. Couldn’t do anything else. Wouldn’t know how to do anything else! I’ll keep going until I stop getting satisfaction from a job I love. BUT I often work 7.30am-6pm, evenings & weekends. Have missed every play/sports day/open day etc for my own children 😕 You can’t be in two places & I’m afraid the job usually takes priority. Very different experiences depending on the school you work at (been at mine 21 years!!) 😀

I too was going to suggest that you also consider occupational therapy. That too will shortly be starting an apprentice route as well.

But for most of them you may need to do an access course. Good Luck what ever you decide.

Have you missed the threads full of people leaving teaching because it's so stressful and exhausting? The only people I know still in teaching strongly advise anyone contemplating retraining as teachers against it.

Accountancy is not full time study. Everybody studies whilst also working. You don't need a degree, you just work for the professional qualifications.

With respect, you have no more clue what it's really like to be a teacher or social worker than you do an accountant. It's not doing maths all day long.

Accountancy would give you a much better work \ life balance than teaching or social work, much less stress (if any stress) and far more options for flexibility.

But nobody can spoonfeed any of these careers to you - either in considering them, training for them, or doing them. You need to be motivated and capable of hunting stuff out yourself. if you want an insight go and look at the AAT or ATT info a pp gave you. I am sure you could find entry level tasters online if you looked.

I just don’t want to revisit gcse again. It feels like going backwards.

It's not going backwards if it takes you forwards though, is it?

I considered SW and teacher training and spoke to a few friends who did both. However I decided to train as a nurse and never regretted it. I was a single mum at the time but managed with the help of friends.

I'm a teacher. I came out of school with 3 not very good GCSEs (difficult childhood) but I worked extremely hard in my adult life to get the qualifications I needed to go to uni and complete my PGCE and get QTS. It wasn't easy at all, but worth every second, I love my job.
For both of those careers you're going to need to do something to get to university level.

Where I live the council sometimes advertises for trainee social workers where you work and study at the same time and get paid for it! It takes three years. I wonder if a council near you has the same scheme. I'm in Shrewsbury.

Everybody needs English and maths up to standard anyway, so I'd sort that first, then in all honesty, I'd recommend access course with a view to going into accountancy.

Nothing stopping you going into local authority or school finance afterwards, less being on the sharp end of things, more job security, better hours, greater opportunities for progression, good pension scheme.

They are both stressful, but teachers are paid more and are much less likely to be killed at work.

I admire sws but you could not pay me enough to enter that profession. It is hard, thankless and at times dangerous.

@MitziK My Maths And English are fine.

I can’t find much info on what it’s like to be an accountant, or rather the stuff I can find makes no sense to me as I have no context. All jobs I’ve looked at require experience rather than just a qualification so not sure how that’s achievable.

I would think that whatever path you take you’re going to need to carry out more research before spending years and lots of money retraining for a new career.
I think that my first port of call would be to contact both Primary and Secondary schools to get some time shadowing teaching and pastoral staff to see what they actually do on a daily basis. Try to go into a couple of schools too as each school has its own ethos that may or may not align with your views.
As for gaining a GCSE science you may need to gain it to meet the teaching requirements. To be honest I feel that you really should have knowledge of product that you are selling in the case of my job I feel I need to have GCSE’s as I teach them. Talk to everyone and anyone you can about your possible career choices. Try to gain experience before wasting your time and money.
Teaching is tough it’s stressful and can fill as much time as you give it. You never get to the end of your to do list. You have to work evenings when there are parents’ evenings and there’s no saying you have childcare issues. It’s relentless but absolutely fun and rewarding and very different from any other job. You can earn a decent amount of money and have 12 weeks of holiday combined with a pension and good sickness cover and working conditions in most schools. I personally enjoy working as a teacher many others do too!

What appeals about accountancy? You don’t seem to know much about the role.

Anything is possible!! Go for it!

But...

I think you need to go back to basics! Get as many qualifications... All will help.
And definitely when you're writing a CV.

Really be sure what each career entails before setting your heart on uni. It's expensive when you find the career isn't what you thought it was.

Look at careers advice... Do online questionnaires. Read... What colour is my parachute...

Accountancy is much, much, more than maths... Often people think it's bookkeeping... It isn't.... My pal advises multimillion pound transfers of public services between agencies....

If you didn't finish school because of difficult family background, I really really wouldn't think of social work. Not until you've really come to terms with this.. . As social Work can be absolutely awful at triggering your own stuff.... I've been aroubf colleagues who had breakdowns triggered cos of the utterly shit circumstances.

If you feel you will be come too 'attached', rather than being able to take a professional distance... You'll be mkaokng it difficult for yourself and won't be the most effective.

Good luck!

Of the three, if I was able, I'd go for accountancy. You can work your way up to big money. You are always in demand. You can transfer your skills across different types of industry and find one you love. (I knew a showbiz accountant who had a great life going to first nights and starry parties.)

I love teaching but it's underpaid, undervalued and over monitored in UK. And social workers famously burn out because they are always handling double the case loads they should be and dealing with appalling circumstances and challenging behaviour day in day out.

I know quite a few accountants-all were pretty academic and shit hot at exams-I don’t know if that’s par for the course but something the ones I know have in common.

I'm not an expert in this area but just a thought. Where I live there are various community organisations, charities, etc which work with vulnerable people and/or children and families. I know one or two people who work for this kind of organisation and I get the impression it's generally less stressful and bureaucratic than social work and possibly more direct working with clients. Probably varies a lot by organisation of course. I think a lot of them take volunteers too.

Might be worth looking for something like this to get some experience and see if it's the kind of thing you like, before throwing yourself into retraining? Good luck!