If you were offered a free 1 hr careers advice session aimed at mums

[BagofHolly]

would you go?

Assume it's run by experienced careers people.

What sort of thing would you want to hear about?

That would depend on whether I thought it would be useful - do you mean aimed at mums on ML, or aimed at mums in general?
Is it targeted or a Q&A session? In what way is it aimed at mums and what mum-specific information would it cover? I might feel a bit about that TBH.

At the moment it would be how can i find a job in the private sector that offers me anything near the degree of flexibility that my (probably soon to be redundant) public sector job currently does.

No. Just because i am a mum doesn't mean that i have no career prospects or need advice.

Yes, and anything 'mum'y should already be protected in law, surely?

sorry, I should explain. I volunteer for a charity which offers careers advice and guidence at the moment to mainly vulberable young people, but we're thinking about widening the group of people we work with. I keep coming across mums who want to work but can't fit it in with childcare, or who hit a glass ceiling, or who are forced to take more junior roles because of commitments from home, or who have had a career break etc. So I thought I'd ask on here if a one hour session would be the sort of thing they'd be interested in. The charity gets a payment from the local council for every careers session we run, so that's what's in it for us, but as I say, I wanted a clearer idea of what sort of thing mums would want.

Am VERY sorry if I've breached some sort of protocol on research!

(I've cross posted cos I didn't know where was best to post.)

SHRIIIEEEKPoolingBearBlood at this stage I don't know! It was just an idea to change the direction of the client group. Thinking as I type, I suppose it'd be best if we asked for a questionnaire to be filled in beforehand so we could see the areas of interest. My first thoughts were about how to update a CV after a career break, and some good examples of how to apply successfully for flexible working. And then also info on training available, and own business/revenue stream start-up. That kind of thing.

If it was offerred to me I would be interested. I think focussing on women who have had a career break would be good. I know lots of women who had good careers before children who feel they have confidence issues now when they are trying to go back to work.

When my mum was at a similar stage in her life she was able to go on a "back to work" course which also arranged work experience. I am envious that this sort of thing is not available now.

I think help with CVs, application forms, etc would be good, plus looking at what sort of jobs someone could apply for with their past experience.

it would be helpful if you could tell me about lots of jobs with flexible working hours and real career prospects.

You would need to have actually found some of these mythical jobs first, of course!

I agree with Decorhate - suggestions as to 'next moves' would be useful, speaking as someone who hasn't worked for a long time and now feels unemployable.

ok in principle - but in order to avoid feeding into the general societal thing that equates parent and mum, women and childcare, please direct it at people who want to juggle childcare and work, who would like to step away form f-t work, or who have had a break from work.

and - by promoting it like that - (as well as attracting men directly) you're opening up more options for the women who might be prompted into thinking "maybe dh/dp/dc's father could do with talking to them too, maybe, as a family, we could think about this holistically".

please don't limit it to women.

Hatwoman, you're absolutely right. I think it's me that's pidgeon-holed this a bit as I was thinking of what I perceive to be our potential stereotypical client, but that's my limitation for the purposes of getting my head together. And also cos this isn't Dadsnet!

I can think of loads of mums who would love this sort of thing. Lots of SAHMs at school with amazing organizational abilities who have been out of work for years and now cannot find work which fits in with the children.

Yes, now you've expanded I'd be a lot happier about it, as other have mentioned, aim it at parents. What made me was that it might be about fitting a little job in around the school run. (think I've been on the other thread too long). However, targetting childcare advice at mums isn't that strange as surely a huge proportion of single parent families are headed by mums, and they are the ones that have the practiclities of day to day life with children and a job.

I would be interested in this as I struggle with work and childcare.

I agreee with hatwoman. i'm glad she brought this up. these issues affect fathers too - how to find employers or work which fits around childcare arrangements, how to handle answering questions about career breaks during interviews when going back, etc - these issues are universal - and although the OP has said she's targetting mums because this is mumsnet, I know from when my H was looking into going part time, just before he decided to do it, there was VERY little help aimed at him for this

so it's mums net, but these problems are universal - think of them as "parent and work" problems, not "mum problems" :)

and to answer the OP, i wouldn't have found this sort of thing useful because we both ended up going 60% time anyway, and I only took 3 months off, so i'm probably not the best person to answer. BUT having said that I have siblings who would DEFINITELY have found this sort of thing useful - i always thought this was the sort of thing the Job Centre is supposed to help with, but everything I hear makes me thing I'm totally wrong on that (totally clueless about job seeking these days as you can probably tell)

Yes I would

I would find this helpful - I can't find any job that covers the cost of childcare for my dcs. I haven't worked now for 2 years and feel I have lost all my confidence and that noone would want to employ someone who's been out that long

It would only be useful if comparatively high level people gave it, rather than other mums who wanted to be career counsellors to simplify their lives and school runs.

There are parallels with HE. I find that a lot of university career counsellors have gone into this as some kind of default option, and some of the information they give out is useless as a consequence, as invariably they have only ever been career counsellors in nice comfy jobs.

Decorhate 'When my mum was at a similar stage in her life she was able to go on a "back to work" course which also arranged work experience. I am envious that this sort of thing is not available now'. This sort of stuff is availably locally to us - just at ridiculous times that fail to take into account most schools now stagger reception starters and mothers are not necessarily fully available the first week of September - therefore forcing you to wait an extra year

I'd quite like advice on changing career, training courses, funding, where the skills shortages are, what the job market in our local area is like, that kind of thing. I have to admit though I'm wary of a lot of workshops/training aimed at 'Mums' as they seem to aim quite low in terms of education/career aspiration etc.

might be an idea to look at jobs with limited outlooks or futures and not to exclude those people shelf stacking etc from bettering their career prospects, if your funding allows ofcourse

I'd love it. Please come here.

You are generalising too much about "mums". I'd love what you are offering if it was relevant to my background, qualifications and career. How can you ever hope to do that for everyone? I would pick your target audience and focus on that. That way you might help someone.

Agree with others that I can't see how all mums want the same career advice. I'm put off about the generalisation. It sounds patronising tbh.

That said, I think I'd like coaching on interview techniques for professional jobs. Also maybe how to negotiate a payrise, promotion, or build up a good CV.