Careers advice?

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

Good morning, i am wondering if anyone could give me some careers advice or just help me unjumble my thoughts on going to work/collage please.

I have never had a career really, all my jobs have been in the food industry but im certain i don't want to do that again.

I left school at 15 and didn't sit my GCSE's, i am currently at collage doing a Literacy and Numeracy GCSE equivalent.

I originally thought i would quite like to do nursing, i do a lot of it in my daily life anyway as my son has a lifetime illness and im comfortable in a hospital environment and around illness.
I have looked into this and its going to take many years of training and i would have to go to Uni which i am never going to be able to afford and i don't want a lot of debt hanging over my head, my local Uni don't do the degree either so i would have to travel an hour a day to get there.

I'm wondering if i would be putting myself through a lot of stress financially and in general to get a nursing degree when actually knowing the type of person i am i would probably get as much job satisfaction from being a Health Care Assistant which although i don't know, i assume is a lot less training and study but still working with people and interacting with patients.

Then again all i really want from a job is to work with the public and to help people whilst working in something i enjoy, i love reading and books so i would be perfectly happy in a Library or even a bookshop.

I'm so indecisive but i feel i need to make a plan and stick to it! My courses will be finishing early next year and i need to decide if im going to do another course or if im going to try and draw up some sort of CV and get a job, i also thought i would like to do an apprenticeship in Health care, maybe in a nursing home?

Please dint read this is if i shying away from the hard work of studying because it really isn't that, i have been working my socks off to get my GCSE's, its just that i don't want to be spending 4 years studying and getting into debt to end up doing something when i would be quite happy doing something that didn't require the years of study..

Does that make sense?

I spoke to the Careers Advisor at collage but he said unless i know what i want to do he can't advise me.

I'm going to collage now so if anyone has any thought please leave me a message for when i get back.

Thanks

First, your careers advisor sounds pretty useless.

I think HCA would be a good choice for you.

There is quite a bit of information on the nhs careers website. For example:

healthcare assistant

If you were able to get a job as a HCA, you might be able to do an NVQ whilst studying. A level 3 NVQ would be enough to get you on to a nursing degree if you decided later on that you wanted to train for that.

Dear Mumsnet team,

I was just wondering whether any of you could tell me where I should start after an almost 10 year career break? What would your advice be for a mother who needs to return work but is restricted to 2 days a week, specifically Mondays and Wednesdays? (Next year September 2011 might be more flexible). Which areas could I go into? Am pretty flexible and adaptable and quick to learn so long as it is not anything too financial(!). My areas of expertise are setting up new pipelines, selling in 4 languages, creating order from disorder, setting up offices from scratch, book-keeping but I must be honest, I am not up to scratch with any secretarial technological wizardry...Am open to anything new/old. If I need to learn from scratch, so be it. Where could I go? I would love to work in the Richmond/Twickenham area which is where I live. Thanks for any help.

Squirrel, I'm guessing you might be new to Mumsnet.

In case you are, I'll just give you a bit of info on how it works.

There is no Mumsnet Team - only other mothers posting on the forum.

It is generally considered polite to start a new thread for a new topic. So this thread is about Titsalina's problem; if you want advice on your own situation you should start a new thread.

You'll soon get the hang of the etiquette!
Welcome to the site.

PS - I hope this doesn't sound harsh. I'm just trying to be helpful and get you some answers.

Titsalina - if you do nursing at uni the course fees are paid for you. And if you do an advanced diploma you get a non-means tested bursary which you don't pay back (just over £6k per year I htink). You are also exempt from council tax as a full time student (although if you have a partner they would still have to pay single persons rate). The course is usually divided into blocks of uni and blocks of placement.

Just mentioning those things in case you didn't know. Sorry if you did. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Hiya titsilina, i have just read your post and it is as though as i wrote it myself. I have the exact same dilema. I am currently not working and because my son is disabled i can t be forced to work until he is 12 years old. He is 6 at the moment so that gives me a lot of years to go and train to do something but i ve got no idea what. I would love to do nursing but firstly not sure if i could afford it ( i am a single mum) and also whether its something i really want to do. I am also wondering about maybe a teaching assistant role but the pay is nt very good. I know money is nt everything but it still is a factor . Post again with any advice you have and good luck with your decision xxxx