Can I have a better career without a university degree?

[incognito1991]

Both myself and my partner each earn £2000 after tax per month, I feel myself wanting more in life, we live in a rented home, no extra money to save for a deposit, not a lot of spare money for anything really. I have always done office work and care work, the highest qualification I have is a level 3 in health and social care. I wouldn’t mind doing something like open university to better myself but I was just wondering if there are any careers that earn good enough money without having qualifications?

What sort of office work have you done? What are you good at? What interests you? And are you willing to work towards non-degree qualifications?

I think most jobs need some form of qualification, however non degree wise plumber, plasterer, electrician, for vocational career

Sales , such as car sales estate agent other sales etc probably earn good money

But i suspect a lot of jobs will require some form of qualification or willingness to work towards.

You could apply for something where the employer is willing to put you through qualifications?

I have done telephone call centres, business administration which includes social media, marketing, website updating, and being a virtual assistant so I would say a range of office work. Yes I would be willing to, I am just trying to gauge how to go about it all.

Have a look at some higher level apprenticeships. My dd is doing an engineering one- she is being put through a foundation level degree and will have the opportunity to study for a full degree, everything paid for even food and accommodation whilst studying plus a wage of over 30k a year whilst training.

There are plenty of careers out there that pay £50k+ that don't necessarily require a degree but you will probably have to start at the bottom and work up to that level.

I work in maintenance planning (in aviation) and only came to the industry about 12 years ago. I started in a different field within aviation, worked my way up there then side-stepped over into a Technical Services role before becoming a maintenance planner.

I earn over £55k as a base salary and have supplementary payments added on for doing on-call work as well as a 20% performance related annual bonus.

The highest qualifications I have are 4 GCSE's at grade C from over 30 years ago.

Civil Service.

Spend some time browsing the Mature Study and Retraining board, @incognito1991 - that should give you some pointers:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

You need to decide what you want to do and then work backwards to establish what you do to do to get there. Doing a degree aimlessly with no idea what you’re going to do it with it won’t automatically better your position.

The NHS offer hundreds of apprentices ranging from school leaver to director levels. Many are not patient facing also. Do you want to stay in health/social care or do something completely different?

If you are below the age of 39, you can do higher apprenticeship in may industries.
Also trades. Hairdressers do really well in certain parts of the country both as employees and self-employed.

Police?

I already posted but what about dog grooming? I live in a coastal town, 80miles from London- not rural, not remote but I rang 8, local groomers before finding someone.

My cousin was a SAHM for years with no qualifications. She trained as a groomer and loves it. Her eldest child has complex, special needs, but she can book grooms around school picks ups etc. She now has a mobile unit and goes to peoples homes. I'm not sure what she charges, but mine is £45 for my small, poodle X. She takes just over 1hr to groom.

Try the national careers service- free advice

Bit niche but I work for a large multi-national logistics company and I run a small team that supports sales. I earn £90k as a base salary and get a yearly bonus on top. The sales people earn even more! I was only on £40k when I started there 7 years ago. I have no degree, not even A Levels. The company where I work even does apprenticeships.

Care Home manager is the obvious choice, if you can get your nvq level 5 (some may accept “working towards”) That’s £40-50k so around £2800-3200pcm.

It all depends on what you want to be - you may have no idea yet - I never did! I worked in admin/accounts through my teens & twenties, with no formal qualifications, apart from a couple of average GCSE’s. Now have 2 businesses, very happy, not on mega bucks, but more than enough. If you want to go into something like law or medicine, then yes, you need to go the formal education route. I hope you find your way 💕

I have no qualifications bar my GCSEs, and I am in a career managing people who have degrees and post-grad qualifications. It definitely is possible. However, is it my dream career? No. Am I bored out of my tits? Yes. But the pay off is the good salary and excellent job security. I earn 65k pa as a sort of top level middle manager now.

I got there by starting at the bottom, admin role, then applying for the next step, then the next step, then the next step. I would suggest sectors not often thought about, like local authorities, utility providers and social sector organisations who have a range of directions you could go. But it has taken patience, effort and years of feeling inadequate compared to my highly educated peers. I also do a couple of board volunteering positions on the side to boost my experience and exposure. Basically the work I put in now, is what I imagine people doing difficult degrees had to put in when they were 20 years younger.