Argh. Help me with OU planning. Midwives and HCPs especially, please

[Habbibu]

I'll try to keep this brief - took voluntary severance from my HE admin post when ds was born last October. I've been thinking of applying for midwifery for years, but for various reasons (mostly to do with losing baby and molar pg, and then having dd and ds) it was never the right time.

I don't think it's practical for me to apply to start until ds is in school, so that's in a few years - we have no family nearby, and though we have great friends, they all work/have small children too.

In the meantime I want to do stuff that makes me feel I'm moving forwards and which will help my application. I can't really do voluntary work atm while ds is so little, and so have been doing some further study with OU. I like studying (have PhD in English which won't cut much ice, but means I have study skills, so can fit this in without too much extra trouble) and would do it just to keep my brain ticking over if I didn't have to pay.

Question is - what to do? I'd been working towards the Certificate in Health Sciences, but they've recently limited the options beyond that - so, do I go down the Natural Sciences route, leaning towards Biology/Health Sciences, or the Health and Social care route? I have Biology Chemistry and Maths A levels, so can handle scientific concepts ok.

Part of me thinks that the former would offer more possibilities if midwifery doesn't work out, but the latter seems to be more tailored to what midwifery entails.

Any advice welcome - sorry that was long.

Probably not overly helpful, but have you considered Psychology. A bit of a mix of writing and science?
(I'm just starting it, with similar reasoning to your own, though I don't have a PhD already!)

Hmm. I can see that it would suit my background, I think, but I don't think a career in a psych area would really suit me, tbh, if mw didn't work. What are you thinking of doing?

Or an open degree? Not sure this would qualify for ILA funding?

I'd have liked to try being an Educational Psychologist, but think I'm probably going to be too old to go as far as I'd like with that. Alternatively PGCE at the end to do primary - especially interested in foundation stage.

I'm in scotland, so can get a £500 grant per 60 point OU course. Not sure what funding is available elsewhere, but know the OU regional offices can tell you.

Good luck, whatever you chose.

Friend of mine is doing Ed Psych with OU - she's a secondary teacher already, though. I don't know about too old - if retirement ages get pushed back there may well be a whole long career ladder ahead. I hope so, tbh, as I'm looking to be in my mid-forties when and if I qualify as a midwife.

I'm in Scotland too, and the ILA has got me thinking. I'm a bit concerned that come the spending review it'll be one of the first things scrapped, so want to at least get one course paid for. I really do need to just get on wwith it, otherwise I'll miss the deadline.

Good luck to you too!

It's not the psychology degree that's the killer for a mature Ed Psych wannabe, it's the three year doctorate that comes afterwards. I did the OU psych degree, but nowhere near me offers the Ed Psych doctorate. When I started the OU degree all you needed was the degree, a teaching qualification and experience and a masters. Still, teaching suits me pretty well too.

Sorry to be no help to you though Habbibu!

No worries, TFM. It's interesting to hear of other career changers. There was a programme on the radio a while ago that I meant to listen to about women changing careers later on (ie not 20s) - didn't get round to it, though. Hope that's not a sign!

I would say that if you are looking to go for midwifery then some sort of health related course would be best.

I'm in health care but have no social care experience and have recently completed the 'intro to health and social care' care (K101), it was really interesting and taught me a lot about social care, so I think it would give you a good introduction into h&s care. It is a level 1 course so you would probably find it very easy.

I've moved on to K203 - working for health, which is about how we view health, what health means and how our health affects what we do.

They do a human biology course which sounds fab, I'm going to do that next year.

Thinking from the point of view of you being a midwife I'd say it would be good to have an insight of how the health and social care system works

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Oh, you star - I've just signed up for K101, and "pre-ordered" human biology for next year, so we can compare notes, I hope. Can I ask what you do?

I'm an operating department practitioner which nobody has ever heard of but basically I work in operating theatres as a anaesthetic technician, I help people go to sleep, stay and asleep and help wake them up at the end!

When I trained the qualification was a NVQ level 3 and certificate of higher education, now it's progressed to keep it inline with the nursing qualification so is a degree course. There's no pressure or requirement for existing ODP's to get a degree but I want one!

In the future I'm thinking of midwifery too, my boys are 3 and 4 so realistically I can't train until they are old enough to get home from school themselves and wait for dh to get back, so almost 10 years but if I can get a degree before then it should help me with the midwifery study.

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