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

@DisappearingGirl I’m going to apply for some volunteer positions like you’ve mentioned to try and gain some skills and see how I find it.
I’m also looking at a foundation degree in health and social care.

A foundation degree in health and social care will just prolong your pathway to social work?

But I could fit it around work. Whereas with a full on degree I’d have to give up work and I don’t know if I’d qualify for universal credit. It’d still open up job opportunities such as family support worker or jobs in the nhs allowing me to progress.
As far as I know, if I did decide to pursue the social worker route, it’d mean I could skip the foundation year?

@Imustbemad00

If you drop a private message I can help you work out what you'd get UC wise

I don't think you can skip the first year as you have to complete a set number if practice days

If you wanted to do a social work degree is total separate to health and social care, so you’d be adding a three year degree on top of your foundation degree.

I’m going to spend a while thinking about it before jumping into anything (and a mountain of debt) will do some volunteering and see how I feel. I’ll either do full on degree in social work, or maybe just a health and social care foundation degree and see where I go with that job wise, support worker ect and see what opportunities open up. I’m not 100% sure I want to be a full on social worker.
I may find I can access some jobs through volunteering and building experience rather than needing the foundation degree if I decide to go down the family support worker route.
I feel like I need to test the waters and see what roles appeal to me first.