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Mature study and retraining

Talk to other Mumsnetters who are considering a career change or are mature students.

How to start getting an education - help!

4 replies

lauribec · 15/11/2025 21:52

I’m 32 with 3 children. No education really, passed my GCSE’s and got an extended diploma in business (not by choice, it was just there at the time) my relationship is miserable and I know I couldn’t financially support myself, my children and a home.

For a long time I’ve wanted to better myself, achieve something, get an education. OH always shuts it down and says it’s my job to be there for the kids, that I can’t do both etc. But I honestly can’t live like this forever.

I’ve tried to talk to my mum about what sort of job I may be good at but she just comes up with reasons why I wouldn’t be good at things and tells me she can’t think of any kind of work I’d be good at 😩 my brother on the other hand is her blue eyed boy, has restarted his computing degree 3 times now! Got to the very end, didn’t finish the final year and now has to go back again in January 🙃 has no family, lives at home with mum, has never worked a day in his life and contributes absolutely nothing to the household. She made a comment to me recently “he may have come off the tracks but at least he was on some” 😂

Huge issue is I’ve never known what I would like to do for work. I got pregnant young and have just worked dead end jobs.

Any ideas on how I could start off please? How to decide on a direction I’d like to take? Is there anyone I can speak to about that? Do I start at the bottom and get GCSE level qualifications again? If so, how?

Just so fed up of feeling embarrassed 😩

Sorry for the rambling, don’t really have anyone to talk to about it!

OP posts:
LifeBeginsToday · 15/11/2025 22:08

You can do a degree with the Open University. I only had GCSEs and did my degree in my 30s over 6 years. Now I earn around £30k and they take a fiver a month towards my student loan out my wages. It's affordable and achievable.

lauribec · 15/11/2025 22:21

LifeBeginsToday · 15/11/2025 22:08

You can do a degree with the Open University. I only had GCSEs and did my degree in my 30s over 6 years. Now I earn around £30k and they take a fiver a month towards my student loan out my wages. It's affordable and achievable.

I did wonder if the open university might be the way forward, especially as I have no help with the kids and work part time. How did you find the work load taking the 6 year option?

OP posts:
CrystalSingerFan · 15/11/2025 22:50

Good luck, OP!

Check out https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ - it's the Open University's website offering free introductory online courses and a whole lot more. Why not try a bunch of different subjects and see what works for you.

The home of free learning from the Open University

Study hundreds of free short courses, discover thousands of articles, activities, and videos, and earn digital badges and certificates.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/

Fgfgfg · 15/11/2025 23:05

Another route could be a part time Access to Higher Education course at a local college. It helps people bridge the gap between GCSEs and university especially if you've been out of education for a while. You can do a general access course or something more specialist that gears you towards a particular career such as law, midwifery, finance, social work etc. You don't need an access course for the OU.
https://www.accesstohe.ac.uk//en/home

Access to Higher Education

The Access to HE Diploma prepares people without the necessary qualifications for study at university.

https://www.accesstohe.ac.uk/en/home

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