Going back to studying but not sure what course I should do in Uni

[Tulvander]

Hi all and calling all the mature student mums out there. Im in a dilemma at the moment. So, Im thinking of going back to college and then hopefully university after dropping out of a foundation course in art and design when I was 19. My father's health was deteriorating at that time and I decided to become his carer as we only had each other left. I never went back to education ever again and Im now 29 with a DH and DS who is 2 years and 5 months. Ive been working in the hospitality industry for over 8 years mainly doing HK and Im honestly sick of it. Im not progressing anywhere despite my hard work and efforts and my wage is honestly crap. My DH is earning a fair bit as a sou chef but I would like to add on to my skills and do more than just HK.

Ive always loved art but I never saw it as a career. It really is just a hobby for me and I enjoy drawing scenes from my imagination whenever I write short stories to pass the time. I love languages and love to write but that is as far as it goes. Right now, I would like to get into a career that is in demand and pays well. A Monday to Friday job is something that I would be looking to do until my son is old enough to be left to his own devices so that I can work weekends...that would be in about 12 years time...No family members living where we are so finding a babysitter during a weekend is going to be expensive. My goal is to be able to work internationally and bring my family along. I would need to be earning enough to support my son along with my husband's wage.

I intend to go to my local college to apply for either Access to HE: Business or Humanities and Social Science. From there, I plan on attending University. Ive already decided on what university I will go to and it's about an hour's drive from where I live. I have two courses to choose from at Uni:
1.) Modern Languages: Japanese and Chinese

• The uni offers this as full time (3 years) or part time (6 years)
• I already have basic knowledge in Japanese and Chinese as I have lived in Japan for a short period to learn Japanese and Singapore where Chinese was the main language spoken
• Ive checked with the course lecturer and he said that it would be more realistic for me to do the course part time. He shared an example of a weekly schedule and it was very full on. 5 days a week.

2.) International Tourism Management

• The uni offers this as full time (3 years) or part time (4 years)
• Ive worked in the hospitality industry for 8 years and I would like to try to broaden my work skills by working in different sectors of the tourism industry
• The course lecturer said that she is confident that I can do the full time course while I work part time as the lectures are only 3 days a week.
• Business isn't my strong subject but I know that I can dedicate myself to getting good grades and making it work. I just wont have that much passion in it compared to languages, art and creative writing
• Im currently doing a Level 2 Business Admin course that is free to give me a head start

So, the question is, what pathway should I choose or create for myself? I would like to hear your opinions and what you would do. Whatever subject I choose in college and uni, I know that Im not going to half ass it because I really want to get a degree. But which one will help me get a long term international job that will potentially pay well? Thank you.

Long term international job doing what? That's quite vague as a goal.

Ordinarily as a mature student retraining, one would decide the specific career path being targeted and then work backwards to select the best course.

What jobs/roles do you intend to apply for once you graduate? And what job/role do you want to be doing 10 years post-graduation?

Work out your career goal first and then find the most relevant course. It's expensive to study if it's not going to open up well paid career options afterwards

Hi @Tulvander and well done for taking the first steps to going back to education. Deciding you want to retrain is such a big step in itself. I have to agree with the previous comments and say consider what exact role you would like to get into and work backwards from there. That's exactly how I did it when I retrained. I whittled down the things I'd liked and disliked about previous roles, then applied those things in my job search and from there found the role I wanted (therapist). I then researched how to achieve that goal through universities and from there found the right access course to get me through those steps. I am now several years post graduation, comfortably in the role I wanted and have been for some time. So have a clear goal in your mind and go from there.

PS if creative writing is what you enjoy why not look at a course doing English and use your passion to be a writer? You could start with ghost writing and go from there to build clientele and confidence. I would say choose something you truly are passionate about as then you'll care enough about it to get through the toughest stages of the studying.

@recyclemeagain@pavementmutation@Mumaway
Thank you all for your response.
Im going to try and answer your question about these 'goals' as best as I can.
It may sound vague when I say that I would like to work on getting a 'long-term international job' but I would like you to understand that it took me nearly 10 years to come this far to even manage to make a decision on what I would like to do in my career. I grew up in South East Asia with only a workaholic father who was a technical engineer since I was 11 years old. I did horribly in my studies due to learning difficulties and severe anxiety as my mother left us when I was 10. I had no say in anything whatsoever in my life until I turned 18 years old when I eventually left South East Asia to travel the world for half a year to hopefully start a life of my own. I then decided to study a subject that I was very good at and passionate about which was Art but only a year and a half later, I had to pull out to look after my sickly father who came back to England. So, there I was hitting rock bottom and having to revolve my life around my father's needs and having to adjust my schedule around him. Im lucky enough to have been able to meet someone, get married (which he wasn't even supportive of) and have a child.

As sad as it is that my father passed away a couple of years ago, it's a relief to not feel bound to someone any longer if that makes sense? So, what you would consider a 'vague goal' is already a 'big goal' from where Im standing. But what you are trying to find out from me is what exactly would I like to do for myself? That's a very good question and my answer to that is I don't know yet. Ive spent years being directed by someone and there was no room for my own wants and needs. My father originally wanted me to join the army or try to become a flight pilot, a doctor or an engineer. I just wanted to finish school with good grades. XD
When I did get some freedom, I took every opportunity to travel around Europe and I suppose that's where I thought about getting in the tourism industry because I really loved travelling. I found it really enjoyable booking and planning holidays and finding good deals online. I even helped plan my friends who were in a music band their travel itinerary. Jobs like Event Planner/Coordinator, Travel Marketing Executive, Product Development Administrator, Travel Operations, and Corperate and Marketing Communication are some of the jobs that I have looked at that interest me. A lot of these jobs don't require a degree but more hands on experience which I don't have. All I have are housekeeping and some reception skills. That's it. I hope this has made things a bit clearer? If not, Im just going to delete this thread and not bother anymore as it seems that Im not in the right mindset to become a mature student. :(

Don't delete the thread. It's a big step and it's good that you're thinking through all the options.

I went back to university as a mature student to study an MSc, I actually ended up in a different career to what I'd anticipated as I discovered I loved an aspect of the degree that I'd never considered.

Is there any way that you could combine the languages with business/tourism as a joint honours? As this would allow you to do both.

One thing to consider when deciding between FT and PT study is that PT could still mean lectures 5 days a week, so you'd still be travelling every day. It would reduce the workload though.

People are just trying to help you succeed.

A degree is a massive financial, time and emotional commitment. It's important to choose one that best supports your goals. Otherwise you risk sinking years and thousands of pounds into a degree that still doesn't help you to break into the career you want.

That's why I was asking questions about your specific goals rather than offering an opinion without understanding what you're trying to achieve.

Jobs like Event Planner/Coordinator, Travel Marketing Executive, Product Development Administrator, Travel Operations, and Corperate and Marketing Communication are some of the jobs that I have looked at that interest me. A lot of these jobs don't require a degree but more hands on experience which I don't have.

Some of those are quite different roles/careers, eg marketing and product development. Marketing roles tend to be quite competitive, so if you could find ways to get some kind of experience that would help you.

Have you looked at ways you could obtain
experience? Would the tourism management degree open any industry doors for placements or anything like that? Can you get experience in other ways to get your foot in the door? What are the employment outcomes and destinations for graduates from that degree? Will it help you develop a network in the industry?

Given that you've identified that the roles that interest you require/prioritise experience over a degree, I'm not sure a modern languages degree would be enough on its own to get your foot in the door - although it might give you an edge for some employers.

Out of the two, the tourism management degree sounds like the more practical fit for the types of jobs you want to do.

I would consider the part time option. Studying full time plus working part time plus raising a family is a lot for anyone. It's tiring and stressful. If you study part time it takes some of that pressure off, lets you achieve your best and also leaves time for you to maximise the career services at the university and any work experience options connected to your course.

For what it's worth @Tulvander I was 40 before I returned to studying so I can relate to it taking time to get to where you're wanting. Prior to that I experienced many major life events as well that I won't go into on here, but the point is that if you want to look at studying then do it. We are just meaning that it helps to have a clear end goal in mind for yourself as it will make it so much easier on yourself. But if you're wanting to delete the thread over pretty reasonable suggestions that is of course your choice too. You are 29 so you have plenty time.

I'm a mature student (30yo) currently half way through my degree in Environmental Science after working in computer engineering for a long time and wanting a career change.

I would second that having an exact job in mind and then figuring out how to get that job is definitely the way to go. I had a vague idea that I wanted to work in a job which helped the environment and figured if I just got a degree then I could get my foot in the door and figure it out as I went along. After speaking to so many graduates since I've started my course who have first class degrees and masters degrees it's become really clear that having a degree isn't enough these days to get into a career and most are either working in minimum wage jobs or doing something completely different to what they want to do because they just need a job. After working in a sector for so long that was crying out for people, I also hadn't anticipated the massive competition for every job these days in most industries. Last summer I even struggled to find anywhere that would let me work for free for 2 months to get some experience. I'm lucky in that I've managed to secure a paid industry year next year and hopefully that will lead to a job after graduating, but even this has been almost impossible to get, with only 5 people out of nearly 200 on my course being able to find a placement.

I'm expecting my first child in March and if I didn't have a placement I would seriously have wished that I'd either not done a degree at all (as from what I've heard companies tend to massively prefer experience over degrees in a lot of industries) or gone down a more conventional job route that is always in demand purely as a way to support my family rather than for the love of the job, such as accounting etc.

I don't want to put a downer on your decision to go back to uni as I think it's a great thing to do in the right circumstances, but imo it's much much harder work than having a job and it's a really hard slog to get through as a mature student when you have so many more responsibilities, so I do think you need a real set end goal in mind to keep you going and motivated through the particularly tough times