AIBU to start again, again?

[andsowhatnext]

Good morning Mums-netters!

Posting here for traffic

I’m at a bit of a crossroads and I’m after some advice. I will try to give the complete picture to avoid the dreaded drip feed

I’m 45, live with my partner, our toddler and older 13 yr old child in a lovely commuter town outside London. I have done various jobs over the years, retail, waitressing. I spent several years commuting into London, working in sales support, customer services & internal account management within the IT industry. I found the 3hr round trip, 5 days a wk soul destroying over time and wouldn’t do it again, also burnt out with IT.

I’ve also been a childminder and foster carer.
I have a 2.1 degree in Psychology, plus the short qualifications needed for foster care/ childminding. I have no GCSEs/ ALevels.. thanks to hippie parents!
Since 2019 I have been a self employed yoga teacher.

I’m now thinking about my next move, I want to use the time between now and when the little one goes to school (2025) to get qualified and maybe some experience, in something I can get excited about and feel fulfilled doing.
I feel quite old to be starting again but I don’t mind studying, actually enjoy it.

I’d love to use my degree somehow, I like the English language, literature, reading etc. I could see myself working with children again. I enjoy cooking and entertaining.
Maths and science are not my strong point.

I’d like to do something flexible or term time based while my youngest is so small. Thought about teaching but I’m hesitant after reading several threads here saying how hard/ impossible it is with a young family, but at the same time I think it could be possible. I would have to take 3x GCSEs for primary or 2x GCSEs for Secondary, plus A level English to teach English, unless I went for Psychology. Plus the Teacher training. There are probably more jobs for English teachers, plus a 15K bursary.
Perhaps a part time teaching assistant role would help give me an idea if this is for me, before I start the studies?

Teaching English online. I just stumbled across this, can you earn decent money?
Would I need the 120 hr TEFL qualification as well as the 40hr one?
Is TEFL.org the way to go?
Any recommendations on which companies to use for the training and to work for?

Practicalities- my partners work is flexible but not hugely well paid, so I do need to bring in a decent salary (30k?) eventually, with the opportunity to increase over time. I know I will start lower than this. At the moment I could work 2 days a week and fit some study around that. I’m happy to drive but I’d like to stay fairly local at least to start with.

Sorry for the long post & thanks for reading, any advice very welcome!

Hi OP

have you thought about being a probation officer? It’s a really rewarding and essential role.

https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/probation-officer

No I hadn't, thanks bigbus I'll look into that. I would need some experience volunteering first right?

Nope, I used to be a probation officer, degree and life experience will stand you in good stead. If you're up for another degree apply for pquip they'll pay you to train and for the degree and after 15 months your pay jumps by nearly 10k now. It's very common for probation officers to have done other things first, quite a variety in my old team. I still work in a related field.
I was going to suggest probation, social care or youth justice roles

Do you want to be self employed or within a business, define that perhaps and also you seem to want to work with children or is that just because of term time? My suggestions with your skills:

Self employed
Train as a coach, lifestyle or business. Train as a counsellor (national shortage).

Business
HR. You could focus on recruitment. Marketing, either consumer insights/research agency or marketing within a business which needs understanding of consumers and being tech savvy.

Thanks for your reply

When you say degree, do you mean the 15/21 month training program? Portsmouth is a bit of a schlep but could be worth it! Do you know how much of the training is physically at university? Also, how part time is the part time option?

@andsowhatnext yes, if you already have a relevant degree it's 15 months, it's all remote/on the job you don't have to go to uni and it's de montfort again now, I understand they are a better provider (I had them many moons ago and they were great), any training will be online or in your local delivery unit

I wouldn't become a probation officer. People are leaving in droves. Unmanageable case loads and targets. You spend 5% of your time with the people you're trying to help and 95% of the time tied to a desk trying to keep on top of never ending assessments, referrals, reports etc. The pay isn't great for the stress and responsibility involved either.

Aha yes, the East of England - De Montford. Are the local training centres just in major cities?

That's interesting, can I ask what part of the country you're in?

Also, does anyone know what probation officers typically move on to?

I'm in London, which I know is the area hardest hit. But I've heard every other area has issues too and may well end up like this. I'll probably have to NC after this but virtually every probation office in London is now classed as a "red site" meaning they have less than 50% of the staff they need. Reems of cases are unallocated or stuck in a senior probation officers name. It's a major incident waiting to happen. People are just firefighting and trying to stay on top of high risk cases but it's horrendous.

That does sound stressful.. lack of training places or does no one want to do it?!

Thanks for your reply

I thought that there's an excess of counsellors?

I think ultimately I'd like to work within a company/ business. Self employed can be quite isolating

Would I need an HR qualification?

My friend was a EFL teacher and retrained as a counsellor. She’s self employed and works 20 h per week by choice. There is an enormous queue of people going private due to lists on the NHS and increase in mental health issues generally.

For HR, you can do qualifications or you could join as an HR assistant and then they’d likely support you getting some qualifications in that area. You have psychology degree, lots of experience with people and have worked in business so might a good option for you.

I've just qualified as a counsellor and currently work for a charity which I'm very happy with.
Many of my peers have set up private practice and have clients coming out their ears, that they now have a waiting list. As PP above said, NHS waiting lists are ridiculous plus offering CBT is not what all people would like access to.
Your psychology degree will give you a fantastic base for counselling if it was something you were interested in.

Thanks, that's good to know. I think I need to research into what type of counselling is in demand, the cost of training etc

HR could be good too, but probably less flexible

Yes counselling of some kind has been in the back of my mind, I will definitely look into some different options. Is there any particular modality you'd recommend?

Well, I'm Person-Centred and it absolutely makes total sense to me. However, there are many more modalities out there which is a personal journey for each counsellor to take.
If you started either level 2 or 3, you would get a taste for a few different types and see what fits with your personality.
It's been the hardest thing I've ever done as you need to look within before you're let loose on someone else and this can bring up some stuff in itself 🙂 but it's the best thing I ever done too and it's exactly what I should be doing x