to ask for your career change / further study ideas?

[colalight]

My union are in settlement talks with my horrible employer who has (long story short) bullied and discriminated against me to the point of a complete mental breakdown and a tribunal claim.

I see myself leaving but I'd need to retrain because my qualification is very niche and my employer is the main employer of this particular qualification in our devolved region - all other employers are in the other parts of the UK and I'm not going to move.

There are some charities that do similar work and I might try to get a job with them although its temporary work usually and less than half of what I currently earn.

So I was thinking, if I got a payout, using that money to retrain in something else (a postgraduate course) but doing it distance learning so that I can work (any job really) and still pay my bills.

I don't know else to study though. My qualification and experience is similar to counselling/psychology. I can't say exactly what the qualification is as saying it, together with my current situation. would totally out me to my qualification.

Can anyone give some suggestions as to qualifications and careers that are in high demand and high paid? Jobs where I'd almost definitely get recruited?

I do have an interest in law (thanks to my current situation) but I don't really fancy 4 years of studying it at PG level. I did do a CIPD qualification but no longer want to work in HR after my experiences! I'd also consider FE/HE teaching but it seems you need to be a teacher already to get into this area.

Does anyone have any ideas for me please?

PS the OU is ridiculously expensive!

out me to my "employer" I meant - typo

School business manager? CIPD would be invaluable, so maybe look at accountancy type stuff?
What salary do you need after qualifying?

Accountancy (CIMA if you prefer to work in industry) is quite straightforward distance learning-wise.

I'm watching too for ideas.

Change Management roles. Businesses hire people to help employees adjust to and adopt new ways of doing things.

Study (one idea)
london.ac.uk/courses/organizational-psychology

What are your IT skills like? Software engineers are always in demand

I'm rubbish at maths and haven't done accountancy since my school days.

My current salary is £37,000pa and I'm in the public sector so I'd be keen to have a career with similar salary and benefits tbh, maybe public sector again but not my current employer.

There are public sector management courses available by distance learning
www.soas.ac.uk/cefims/online-programmes/

Have you thought about allied healthcare professions? Chiropodist, radiography?

Massive vote for software engineering if you were to try it out and find you enjoy it. There are hundreds of high-quality courses you can do to learn a programming language and many supplementary ones that will be able to teach you about good systems design practices. Plus you can practice as much as you like for free - all you need is a computer and the internet.

Starting salaries vary but you're looking at an average of £20-30k in most major cities for common programming languages (Java, Javascript, C#, and Python). If you do well at it, continue to push yourself and develop your skills then you could easily be on £50-70k within 7 or 8 years.

occupational therapy does sound interesting but I can't seem to find any courses that don't require you to be currently working in health or attend a residential hundreds of miles away.

Software engineering sounds confusing to me. I'm a bit scared to invest in a course where the 'language' makes no sense?

colalight

You may need a bit of time to recover from the stress of dealing with your employer before making decisions.

If necessary take some time off or a short term stopgap job to allow a bit of breathing space. It will take time to adjust once it is all settled.

You can't expect to enter a new industry on a £37k salary I'm afraid. Most careers, even with qualifications will require actual experience before paying those salaries.

What interests you? You haven't mentioned that. If you go for salary level rather than what you want to do you will find yourself in a similar position with your mental health.
OU isn't expensive compared to most higher education- but when most recruiters still see them a 'mickey mouse qualifications' they are very overpriced.
Why don't you Google 'career quiz' or something similar. See what it throws up and then start there.

Good luck

Software engineering sounds confusing to me

That makes sense, it would probably only require an investment of a few hours to decide if it's something you'd like to take further though.

I'd recommend these 3 learning platforms:
www.codecademy.com/
www.udacity.com/
www.pluralsight.com/

All of them either have free trials or are cheap. You can find highly rated 'Introduction to programming' type courses on them that should genuinely only take you a few hours to complete.

Just an idea though. It's a complete 360 on your previous career, but if it helps I did a 4-year MSci in Genetics at University and then went straight into a graduate web programming job. 7 years later I'm now a senior software engineer. Most of what I learned was either by doing the courses I suggested to you, playing around with code in my own time or learned on the job.

Good luck with whatever you decide

Hi there,

I think you should definitely be looking for something you are interested in and feel you would enjoy, rather than simply something highly paid.

You've mentioned law, and if you already have a degree you shouldn't have to spend 4 years qualifying. If it genuinely interests you then law could be a good choice. Don't do it just for the money, though - the hard work and pressure are simply not worth it!

Best of luck to you

If you have a background in psych, what about moving into educational psychology, and going self employed? We just had our DS tested by an EdPsych privately, she charges £350 a session, and she is booked up for months.

Educational psychology is a mimiimum of 7 years full time training...

Unless OP already has a psychology degree conferring GBR

What do you enjoy doing? Are you a people person? Are you artistic? Are you outdoorsy? Do you enjoy cooking? Do you like gardening? Do you like working with children? Do you like working with older people? If you say a few things you enjoy, you might get more helpful suggestions. So far we only know that you're interested in law but don't want to train in this, that you'd be interested in teaching but don't have the experience and that you are rubbish at maths! More info please! Help us to help you!

This might be slightly left field but have a look at Health and Safety - specifically Nebosh Certificate - not expensive done easily within 6 months but there are intensive courses that can get you through in a matter of weeks. Then the Nebosh Diploma - takes on average 2 years pt and I'd say 99% of people do it whilst working in the industry. It would tick the Law interest for sure and also psychology aspects when you get into behavioural safety obviously you can niche into different areas within industry which are more specialised and would require more specialist education knowledge but there is lots of work out there in general industry that once you get to Diploma level would easily hit your current salary

Sorry!

I'm a people person definitely. I'm good at teaching / giving presentations/ workshops etc. I am caring and sensitive and definitely not managerial material as a result!

I enjoy reading, learning things, doing research (but more literature reviews rather than statistics). I'm good with social media and I taught myself basic website design and did my husband's website for his self employment using 1and1 website and their templates etc.

I have studied lots in my life - history, english, politics, HR, psychology

Recruitment consultant?
Careers advisor?
Could you work for a big company in their training department?

I have been kind of put off HR and recruitment to be honest but learning and development could be an interest, particularly the move towards online learning. I did consider working for the OU but they are based too far away from me.
I actually applied for a job there but considering they are an online university, the job could not be done from home, even though it was literally delivering a service online....

If you've had a mental breakdown because of work and bullying in work don't do law.

The bullying is endemic and has ruined many of my colleagues