Career change inspiration, post-50

[Careerchangerwannabe]

I’m early 50s and have been doing what I do now (broadly, communications) for nearly 30 years. Now that my kids are teenagers, I’m thinking about a change of direction for the last 10 years or so of my working life. I’ve always thought if I did anything else I’d teach English in a secondary school and I’m exploring that.

But there may be loads of interesting options I just haven’t thought about so I’m looking for inspiration around where a 50 something could realistically retrain and have a good chance of finding work, earning at least £30k. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks for reading!

Good demand for climate and carbon skills at the moment, and a comms background would be an advantage. Look at charities and public sector.

Unless you want to teach privately or A-level's only I wouldn't touch teaching. All our 50+ teachers are looking at how quickly they can retire as the behaviour in most schools from children can be very poor. Core subjects are particularly difficult. It's very stressful and not what most people think.

I started as a support member of staff 7 years ago thinking I mite do teaching but there is.no way I will and I'm seriously considering going back into the private sector when my children are old enough not to need school holidays.

I retrained at 50 and became a teacher. I teach in a private school and genuinely feel that if I was working in state I’d have lasted to 55 maximum. For the first years post PGCE, there’s a lot of work - it’s not just a case of one training year then job done.
However, I get far more job satisfaction than I ever did in my office job, and the experience I had in my previous career made loads of aspects of this job (especially admin, data and relationships) far easier for me than some teachers I encounter.
So I would only go into teaching with your eyes open. Go into schools and observe, volunteer etc before committing so that you understand what you’re signing up for.
Good luck! Making a change at 50 is brilliantly invigorating and rejuvenating!

Thanks for the advice and the reality check on teaching, @SunnySomer and @MigGirl. I think it would be important to really understand what I’d be getting into. But, as you say, @SunnySomer, I think I would find a change invigorating. I’m very much at the stage of having done it so many times before - and would also like to do something really worthwhile.

Thanks for the climate suggestion, @Summerhillsquare. That’s definitely something I’ll look into.

Also it's not just one year post PGCE anymore it's 2. Which maybe is good as it's to give more support to new teachers. They only change this 2 years ago and we just had our first teacher complete his this year.

I love our teachers and think they are fantastic, but there is just no way I could cope with the workload. Although I do have a long term health condition which doesn't help.

I think I saw that civil service grad scheme starting salaries are £30k, so that's a whole world of options.

FE or HE teaching/lecturing/assessing? Part time around your main role?

What's your main intent with retraining? Just to explore something different now you have fewer personal commitments / pressures?

Because if so, really the world's your oyster, isn't it? Have you looked on the national careers service website? There are skills and interests assessments that give suggestions of jobs and sectors. Might shake up some ideas.

https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/skills-assessment

Thanks @user628468523532453 will have a look. Intent is to have a change, once the mortgage is paid off. I’m a bit bored, think a change would be as good as a rest. Have been working from home for years - would like to change that too.