Adult son needs ideas on career directions

[ipredictariot5]

Hoping for help! My son is in late 20s. He has done a degree in Spanish and Portuguese and got a 2:1. Then got a Masters in English Lit. Covid floored him MH wise. He has struggled to get full time work that would became a career. A lot of his peers all the same. He is in Scotland. Has had the usual hospitality jobs as a student and did a lot of volunteering during COVID. Since then he has had work on a community magazine and in a library. The problem is all jobs are part time and insecure contracts. He enjoys working with kids. Had planned to apply for PGCE this year but job situation in Scotland for teachers looks dire. Any wise mumnetters have ideas? I feel he needs some sort of professional qualification to progress further - teaching/ social work/probation etc but worried about sinking more money into education when despite a good degree and a masters he is in part time minimum wage work

I've known of people who trained in England finding it ridiculously difficult to get their teaching qualifications recognised in Scotland. Given how few jobs there are teaching Spanish, applying for one with an English PGCE isn't necessarily the most straightforward route.

Does he actually want to teach? There are other ways to work with kids. Masters level training courses for Speech & Language Therapy, Paediatric Nursing, Occupational Therapy...

It's also a shame that education is so transactional now, and that only a very few can afford to study for the sake of learning. Education of any kind should never be considered a waste of time, but here we are.

I would also say go down the allied health professions route. The OT's and Physio's I know are mostly happy and fulfilled in their work and can the same as teachers, social workers. Short term, focussed caseloads, scope to work in all sorts of sectors; sports, NHS, private companies and scope to set up in private practice once experienced.

*can earn

Just be a bit careful about health care jobs and check the current situation.

Something called the Resident Labour Market Test was lifted in 2021, and means that jobs where it is felt that there is a skills shortage are now open to applications world wide, with no priority given to those already in the UK. It means that entry level NHS jobs are now going to more experienced applicants from overseas, motivated by higher salaries and the chance to settle their families here, whilst newly qualified doctors, nurses, physios and others are struggling to find work.

Fine when you have the experience. Its getting it that is the problem. It is apparently estimated that we will have 20,000 unemployed doctors this August, with others having to go overseas looking for work.

What field was the volunteering in? Is that worth pursuing? In the absence of any particular ambition I’d say any office type job provides stability and useful transferable skills - local authority, HR, paralegal type roles