Mid life crisis!!

[PennyroyalTea]

Hey all, not quite sure where to put this so I'll start here...I have been a lone parent since my DD, now 15m, was a few weeks old. I returned to work at the end of May after a year off. I was lucky, I've been able to go back 3 days a week, and DD goes to nursery. However, I hate it, absolutely hate it...it's not being apart from DD or being back at work. It's the job, it no longer holds any appeal, I have something of a career, it's a senior, professional role and I'm paid well.

My question(s) is this, if I decide to resign to retrain/study will I get any support financially? Has anyone else quite the rat race with a young child?? I have some money saved, I am willing to work in a less taxing job to help pay the bills, but I really feel I want a simpler, free-er life, I suddenly find my priorities have changed so very much

depends, I think. If you already have a degree, I am pretty sure that you won't get the loans and fees for a second one (I might be wrong). There is no funding for Masters degrees (usually). If you want to do something 'on the job', I guess that would be different, or if you could complete a course at night school. What are you thinking of? Are your skills transferable to the voluntary sector where pay is low, moral is (in my experience) high and worklife balance is more easily achieved (again, my experience).

You cannot take out a student loan for an undergraduate course if you already have a degree. You can take out career development loans for postgraduate courses up to 10Ä· so say if your masters was 6k you could put 4 towards your living costs but of course you'd still need to work.

Your other option is the OU where you can pay your fees monthly as you earn but I think this would be around £300 per month nowadays

Thanks both, I do have a degree but this was self funded many years ago, I'm looking to potentially re-train, but I think initially this is more about looking to get out of a high-stress, high-salary job, and do something more worthwhile, I guess I'm scared to take the plunge a bit.

And...ooooh, fedupbutfine, third sector, yes, absolutely I have transferable skills and this is something that really appeals, thank you for the suggestion, I'm going to do some research

Have you thought about p/t study? I work 3/4 days and am studying for a degree p/t. It is pretty full on though and I waited until ds started school. There's no financial help for LP's studying p/t but I got my fees paid (Scotland).

No idea how you'd fund it then sorry. There must be some way though. For postgraduate courses you can usually gain entry as a mature student even in a completely different area so you could look into it. 6k for one year is hugely different to 9k for three...

For social work or teaching obviously there are routes you can go where you are paid a small bursary to retrain, same with midwifery.

thirdsectorjobs.co.uk is useful

if you want to discuss a bit, message me. I worked in the voluntary sector for nearly 20 years before retraining as a teacher. I would probably return to it if I could afford to but unfortunately, my divorce whipped away my future financial security and I need to do something about a pension!