Can no longer do my physically active job. Please help with ideas for re-training!!

[caitlin88]

Posting for traffic as I'm really worried how I'll keep us afloat.

I've worked in cleaning, care, and retail, mostly cleaning, since I was 16.

I'm only 34 but after a year of pain and problems I've finally been diagnosed with a disorder (connective tissue?? my mum had it) and I may need surgeries and been told that most lifting, straining, or being on my feet all day is OUT!! Those are the only jobs I know!!

I am scared because I have bills to pay as a single parent. I know first hand how the disability benefits process can be from when I had poor mental health for a couple of years and to be honest I'm terrified of being reliant on their whims and reassessments.

I have some savings so for 2-3 years max I could retrain.

But in WHAT??

Needs to be something with no lifting and either mostly sitting or a mixture of sitting and standing.

I am terrible at all academic subjects too. Couldn't do an anatomy or maths part of a course for example.

Keep researching and getting nowhere with what I can actually do.

Please help!!

Hi caitlin88, I work in a pain management service, we have Occupational Therapists in our team & part of their role is helping ppl find work that’s sustainable, given their physical health needs. They have links with employment agencies, training courses etc and can also be an advocate when it comes to communicating with employers about reasonable adjustments. Pain services do vary but might be worth asking your GP about it if you’re not already under one?

Remploy may be able to help: www.remploy.co.uk/individuals/finding-work-and-support-work/

And it sounds like you’re already thinking about this, but having a job that allows you to change position regularly is really important. Sitting for long periods of time can flare pain up as much as moving too much.

Good luck xx

If you enjoy working with the but can't do the moving and handling you could try Activities Coordinator in a home? In theory the care assistants do all that and you run the activities. Does involve dancing though, but not very energetic dancing in my experience.

The airports are desperate for staff at the moment.

I would start with applying for any and any admin role you find on civil service, nhs, police etc websites.

These are good organisations to get a foot in the door, and have a huge variety of roles to move to and from.

Speaking of, what about a 999/101/111/ambulance call handler/dispatcher? If you’ve caring experience that would help, and it’s usually continuous recruitment.

My mum and I both struggled to get into admin jobs with no experience, she worked as a care assistant and I was in retail before. We both started out as receptionists and worked our way off reception. My mum is the office manager now and she gets loads of new receptionists all the time because they get poached by other parts of the company, seems like a really good springboard. Mum did the European computer driving licence back in the day to give her a little confidence with computers and something to add to her cv, might be worth looking into if they still offer this kind of thing

@Salmakia Thanks for the call centre advice. Can I ask you - do most of them involve selling / upselling or customer retaining? the reason i ask is that I am rubbish at selling, but I am really really strong in customer service.

I keep seeing jobs advertised as 'inbound' , however do these involve an element of selling or cross selling etc at all?

Thanks

So no not all. I've worked for utilities before and no upselling required. Sometimes people call to ask about fox tariffs and I'd they go for it you have to read a sales script bit that's all. I do insurance now and am in a completely service based role. Again some people call to buy a policy over the phone but no sal targets. I've worked for sky before though and that was very sales led. Most will be very clear at interview if it's more of a sales role than a service role

Try Scottish water call centre if you don’t want to be selling, that will all be customers who have issues e.g. no water, sewer flooding etc, and queries about bills.

For NHS admin, it might be worth going via an agency? So sign up to whatever agency they are getting their workers from. Then when a job comes up via the actual nhs you will get it.
That’s how it seems to work in London and might be what your sister is referring to as “all internal people get the jobs.”
I worked nhs admin via an agency for about 6 months and then they recruited about 10 admin all in one go. When I sat in the group stage of the interview, every single person was someone I recognised that worked there -we basically all got the nhs roles that we had been working via the agency. Massive scam if you ask me, but I didn’t complain at the time because it worked out for me. But it made me very cynical about nhs recruiting and I expect it happens regularly. So your way in might be via an agency.

I hope you've found something suitable OP. If not, you could try doing the NHS bank as care assistant to get you on their books then jump over to an admin role as you'd then be able to apply for internal vacancies.

I'm doing a wfh call centre job there are quite a few jobs like this about at the moment. Mine is all inbound customer advice and you don't need much experience but it is quite demanding. Can get very busy and customers can be challenging. Might be a good way to get experience if you do it alongside a qualification.

Air Traffic Controller? Is that a serious suggestion? The only place for training is in Hampshire (sounds like the OP is in Scotland) and you have to relocate there. Once qualified you are sent to work all over the UK. She’s a single parent with young children. You also have to pass a physical - the OP is looking for a new job because of a decline in her physical health. It’s also nights, weekends, bank holidays…not great if you’ve got to find childcare as a single parent.

I looked into it once for myself when I still lived in the UK and attended an open day-type thing about it. The stress levels are immense. One false move and you could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people.

If you can train & get RSA audio typing qualifications & medical terminology then you could go for Medical Secretarial posts. That opens up not only working in the NHS but also in transcription companies on a work from home basis.
Good luck in whatever you go for, OP