re training for a new career

[sunnysidesucks]

I'm just looking for advice or suggestions please. I left school with 2 A levels - I cba to work when I was in the 6th form at all. I hated school. I would have been more than capable of passing my third, and going to uni (I had a place), but I just messed about. I worked for a few years then married and was a SAHM to 2 wonderful children. Fast forward 20 years, and I'm now divorced and would love a new career. I have a couple of jobs which are provide a small income, but I would really love to retrain as something more.

However, I never have, and never did, because I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. I'm in the fortunate position of having no financial pressure which means that I can afford to take time to study, and I can afford to study. However, it also means that I have no pressure to decide what I want to do.

For example, I would love to be a divorce lawyer. But, I probably need a degree, and legal training. I'm 47 years old so I'm guessing it takes too long!

Any suggestions welcomed please!

Thank you.

Well, if you'd like to go to Uni, chances are that any qualifications that you do have are out of date- so you'll need to go to college first.

If you're in Scotland, there's SWAP- the Scottish Wider Access Program which is a year long crash course in a handful of subjects in order to give you enough credits for University. I'd imagine that there has to be something similar in England?

There's also affiliated summer school programs with certain Universities.

As a mature student- I don't believe that you're too late to retrain, but the reality of the amount of time it takes to become a lawyer, plus gaining placements, working hours etc might be a bit much at a point in your life when other people are starting to consider scaling things back.

Take the first step, other opportunities might present themselves but you'll never know unless you try.

Thank you - you've given me a lot to think about. appreciated :)

Hi op you could look at access programmes to universities.
I think it's relatively late to train in some fields (your chances of being an Olympic gymnast are probably quite low ) but there are other areas where your maturity and life experience would be massive advantages. Plus, you probably have another 20-25 years of working life ahead of you if you so wished.
Could you try your local job centre to see if they could put you in touch with a careers counsellor? Good luck.

Could you look at training as a paralegal?

I went back to train as a lawyer - I loved the training and I enjoy my job.

However, there is no getting past how very, very hard it is to secure a traineeship.

If you know you want to help divorcing couples then just go straight to that. Train as a paralegal or work in a family law firm in some support capacity or get a job as a family mediator (training required) or go to work for Citizens Advice Bureau.

There are all those stages inbetween, like becoming a legal secretary or a PA within a legal dept, etc. Reasonable stepping stones to getting into the environment with less investment & risk.

Thank you so much for comments - really giving me things to think about and explore :)

What about doing AAT. You can start at the bottom without an entry requirement and once you do level 4 (in England) can use it as the first rung on the ladder to Chartered Accountancy.

I know someone who did it in two years while working in another job and then became Chartered in her 50s. After doing level 3 she got a job in a local business as the accounts clerk to gain experience, applying to Accountancy firms once she had done the next level/got 12 months experience.

You also have access to Open University. You can even do an access course through them - and their Open Degree, completely customisable, is a unique option.

Also have the option of taking the degree over 3-6 years. They do law as well.