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Retraining - accounts or IT

5 replies

Carole18 · 05/02/2020 20:41

Has anyone successfully retrained in accounts or IT? I see a lot of courses out there and wondered if they are too good to be true and the market is over saturated. Also how hard is coding if you are willing to put in the hard work? Are the youngsters always going to be one step ahead?

OP posts:
GoldenBlue · 06/02/2020 16:33

A number of the good apprenticeship programmes for IT are open to wider age groups and maybe a way to retrain whilst being paid and getting valuable work experience. Much easier to get a job in the future with real experience.

EBearhug · 07/02/2020 14:15

There are lots of online courses, including free ones, which could give you an idea of whether you like coding, but not all courses are equal, of course.

I did an MSC conversion in Computer Science back in the '90s, having originally done history and worked in libraries, which was where I saw the potential for IT - I figured studying it for a year was long enough to tell whether I really liked it or not, and more tech knowledge wouldn't hold me back, whatever I ended up doing. I am still working in IT.

There are loads of routes in these days - sometimes companies have internal training available to help people change career. There are returnships. There are apprenticeships open to a wide range of people, not just school leavers, or you could go back to academia. Or you could gain knowledge and experience on your own. There are also loads and loads of different roles in tech these days, not just coding, so there's likely to be something which suits almost everyone. Having other experience us anow advantage, too, knowing how businesses work, how users think (often different from what techies would like them to do!)

Don't know much about accounting, but I do have a friend who changed to it in her 30s, so it's possible.

Apologies for any typos, but am at an eye clinic and eye drops mean I can't see properly to know if I mistyped anything...

Carole18 · 09/02/2020 16:26

Sorry for the delay in responding - just seen the posts. Thanks for all the info - good to know apprenticeships are just not for the young so will look down that route. Hope you're eye clinic visit went well EBearhug.

OP posts:
EBearhug · 10/02/2020 01:56

It was fine, apart from my issues wit having my eyes looked at, which meant I had to physically hole my eyelids open...

If you have any questions about different types of jobs in IT, I'll do my best to answer.

daisychain01 · 10/02/2020 08:14

Just to clarify there is a wide range of career options in IT that don't involve coding. Business analysis, testing, IT security, compliance and governance are all very achievable to move into from other disciplines.

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