Career change in my 40s?

[kmjbragg]

Are there any former teachers out there who have started new careers? I'm thinking of moving into some sort of therapy-based career - counselling, ed psych, speech & language and similar, but worried that at my age, I'd struggle to convince a university to take me on (I'm 42). I've been teaching for 12 years (3 children, 3 career breaks) and I'm ready for something different. And besides, I promised our mortgage advisor that I'd work until I was 70, so I feel like I'm not even halfway through my working life yet!

Or non-former teachers too please! Teaching just seems like one of those careers that is hard to leave - the steady pay, the school holidays.....it's very secure, but it can be a tough gig, and if you're not loving it, it's even tougher.

I don't work in teaching, but in my experience, my career sees a lot of 'career changers' who range in age from 20's to 50's so yes fully possible and they require uni degrees and don't have problems getting on programmes, if you've got the determination you can do what you want 😊

I left teaching with similar intentions. It hasn't worked out for me because conditions of funding for previous graduates are shit prohibitive in Wales. Would be fine in England (if you can call a £65k debt fine, but you know what I mean).

I had an interview in which the panel took me to task on why I wanted to leave teaching to retrain in that particular discipline, but definitely in the sense that they wanted me to be clear that I wasn't just opting for the most convenient alternative. Age wasn't a barrier though. You have 25 working years ahead after graduation!

It's good to know age isn't a barrier. LunaGirl22, just out of curiosity, what is your career? I took a career test once and one of the high scoring results was 'career advisor.' Thought that was ironic considering I felt like I was the one looking for advice:)