want to help my mum find a fulfilling job, would love some advice.

[retrolily]

Hi, I'm Peter I'm 18 and at university, my mum is really struggling to find a new job and It would be amazing to see her find a job that she genuinely finds fulfilling, and I was wondering if any of you could shed some advice and help if you've experienced or are going through a similar situation. :)

So my mum gave up work to bring up me and my brother in 1993, she worked for John Lewis a high up job earning a good salary, she gave up her job to raise us for the best part of 15 years.she has been working for about 7 years in jobs that do not really compliment what she wants to do in life. As a single parent I can imagine she struggles with the finance side of things and therefore fears spending time to get a degree or do something that would involve part time or full time study. So back on topic of work, shehas worked in cleaning jobs for a while, andfor about 4 years has worked in nursing homes, a job which is horrendously underpaid for the extremely mentally and physically strenuous work she has to do, at shift hours which are additionally very stressful.

Recently my mum has gotten to the end of her tether and has contemplated handing in her notice but without a back up plan, she has been seriously trying to look for work but is quite new and to be honest afraid of the computer, she sees it as stressful job searching online and feels a bit out of touch with technology. I know she could easily adapt to this technology but she is so stressed for work all the time and to be honest has lost so much confidence in herself I want more than anything to find fulfilling work but don't know how to help.

She has genuine skills and wants to work in a another field apart from care, possibly retail or anything that isn't care, are there any mumsnet events or things I can encourage her to go to or anything you would recommend? I probably havnt done her justice on this post but I just feel as if Im not sure how to persuade her to really find her confidence and faith in the modern job market to push herself, she really seems as if she has lost faith in the job work and I can totally understand that as being out of the kind of work during the era where technology has changed so dramatically, it must be incredibly daunting.

Thank you for reading and any advice and comment will be very helpful!

Peace and love

Hi I am a Mum with 3 children all be it still at school, I have recently started working for myself as it gives me flexibility also I feel I can really "go places" with it. Its Multi Level Marketing, Forever Living, costs very little to start up and you can earn very good money without putting hours and hours in if you don't want to. Or has she thought about retraining? Speak to your job centre mature students can sometimes get courses for free or at reduced rates.

forever Living is a pyramid selling scheme and I would avoid like the plague.

She could look at doing her ECDL computer qualification. I bet she could do it part time/evenings and quite probably for free. That's how I did mine. You learn all of the Office suite and internet. Opens a lot of doors.

Well she's obviously done a great job bringing you up What a lovely post.

Would she consider going back to John Lewis? Sure, they probably won't take her back at the level she was but it couldn't hurt to see what they might have?

What about one of the allied health professions like occupational therapy, speech therapy?

Or could she do something where you can train on the job e.g. teaching if she has a degree?

What does she enjoy?

Thanks for reply, she has checked John Lewis without any luck unfortunately.

The allied health professions sound like a possible solution! Might be easier to find a better job!

However, she said she doesn't really mind what job it is as long as it's not in care, care work that Is physically demanding like she is now.

I don't believe she has a degree in teaching , I could see her enjoying a teaching job too! She has a degree in hair and beauty but I'm not particularly sure she wants to do that anymore.

I think doing a course such as ecdl would be greatly beneficial but its just about getting her to actually do it.