Ideas for career 30’s

[Relaxingweekendmaybe]

Hi 👋
I have been wanting to study for a while now but I just don’t know what I want to study, or what career goals I have. I can’t stay in my current role as it is low paid and depressing. I am looking to either join a company and study alongside, or go to uni. I’m looking for ideas of jobs that people enjoy, something that has a nice work life balance. I’m not looking for anything too physical. I’m not overly clever but I have an interest in learning about humans, psychology, computer work, emails, communication, teaching other colleagues. Any ideas? I have a level 3 diploma in healthcare.

Social worker?

Social worker would suit me very well I would think… I just don’t know if I would cope. I have mental health issues surrounding anxiety and stress. I have heard that social workers are so overwhelmed.

Social work sounds an astonishingly bad idea!

@Relaxingweekendmaybe how far have you got in investigating studying for a degree or apprenticeship?

Do you have access to a careers advice service for adults? This really should be your first step.

Have you read everything you possibly can on the UCAS site?

Yes the problem is I’m unable to choose. I’ve looked at every possible career. I can’t choose one that would be suitable for me. I can’t stay in my minimum wage job forever so I’m worried I’ll have to just choose something. But what if it’s the wrong choice…

I was thinking mental health social worker, not children's services. You didn't mention you have your own mental health problems.

Why do you want to study? For the satisfaction or as a means to a career?

New career, job, money etc.

Town planning, then get chartered with the RTPI. Join a developer and they might even pay for your degree. Can easily earn six figures after a decade if you do well. Good lucky.

Careers adviser....,
There's a skills shortage at the moment and University work pays quite well.

Instead of uni which can take 6 years part-time and rack up £££ try some professional qualifications or ICT ones becoming knowledgeable in Excel or similar systems.
Jobs you might not have thought about such as Change Maker and Project Manager require qualifications but they are much cheaper than a degree and you'll achieve them quicker

Consider a job with a local council. They offer good salaries relative to skills/qualification, flexible working and lots of funded training available alongside work. If you like to work with other people, training/facilitation, emails and the chance of career progression based on working hard as opposed to being outrageously clever I think this would tick a lot of boxes for you.

Occupational therapy

If you can't choose what you DO want to do can you work out what you DON'T want to do?

You could become an NVQ level 3 social care assessor or similar. You just need a CAVA qualification and could possibly do that through a company.

I think the pays about 26k per annum and you’d be helping staff

So many ideas thanks 🙏 I am actually employed in a ward. I suppose I was heading in the direction of becoming a Midwife previously. This has changed, mainly due to the problematic issues that they face, the understaffing etc. I don’t think it will be a good match for me anymore, considering my mental health, and issues coping with stress. Putting this aside, the practical reason is the difficulty with working out drug calculations. It’s realistically something that’s bothering me, all in all, nursing or midwifery can’t be the path anymore as I just don’t think I would cope, although I like the actual role and know I would be good at it. I then shifted my focus to other NHS careers, I’m not 100% sure on any though. So I started thinking of something outside of healthcare, where I could be office based, but I can’t think of anything that would qualify me immediately. I really want to study, if I start in an office admin role perhaps, but I still don’t have a lot of experience. I’m trying to learn Excel but really struggling as I don’t use it day to day in my role.

How about HR or working in a business support type role in a charity? I work for a hospice as head of volunteering. I get paid decent money (although it's taken years to get here) but the entry level roles are not awfully paid in HR or volunteering and plenty of opportunities to work in the healthcare sector and support staff/volunteers, without the burden of being in a clinical role.
Study wise there are CIPD and HR courses you can do, but can be done as you learn from an entry level position.

I might try to brush up my Excel skills (fingers crossed) and apply for some roles. Most of them require a certain amount of experience but hopefully I can find something that is entry level.