Can you help make a new career change?

[daisysun]

I am currently a SAHM, my DS has just turned one. I was originally going to go back to work in March but my request for part time was rejected, so I am now unemployed. I am happy to be a SAHM mum for the time being but not forever. I am thinking of taking this opportunity to train for a new career but I'm just not sure what. My work experience all consists of sales/customer service however I'm not too eager to go back into this sector.

In a perfect world i'd work in a health care profession, earn a good wage and have a good home/work life balance. Is there any particular roles that come to mind for you that could offer this? (I know I'm asking a lot here, especially in a healthcare profession)

I've looked into primary teaching, nursing and midwifery which all appeal to me for different reasons; but obviously none of these really offer a good home/work balance. I've also looked into counselling however it seems quite a long winded route to get fully qualified. I'm happy to go to university and get a degree or go back to college etc, but I ideally don't want it to take 6+ years to be qualified which I feel like counselling could possibly be.

Any suggestions please? I really feel a bit stuck in a rut with it all.

Watching this thread with interest. I'm just sick of my current role as a Teaching assistant. I love the children I work with but the poor management, ridiculous work place politics, shit pay £12,500 working 5 days despite being over qualified for the role, has all made me loath going to work. I only like that it means I actually get home and have time with LO as hes at nursery.

Counselling can be done via the vocational route or you can do a degree and masters to be a phsychologist. If you’re looking for a quick route, counselling takes less time. 4 years part time. You could do this whilst working, so if you find a pt role somewhere else, this would work well.

If you’re really keen, but not sure which route, you could do the lower level counselling courses whilst working as a teaching assistant, or maybe a pt role in a medical setting. Get a feel for what you want whilst getting some training. Level 2 in counselling is gcse level, so not too demanding if you have a pt role on the side.

If you want to get your pgce, there are lots of routes so do some research. I would think it might be quite demanding with little ones to do straight off, so any experience working on schools might be good to give you insight.

Work life balance is important. Some health care professions are better than others.

Check out what courses your local college or university offer and take it from there. Now is the time to get signed up for September.

Now is a great time to reconsider what you want out of a career. Good luck!

Counselling is a good option for work life balance, but getting a paying job after qualifying is very difficult. NHS usually only wants experienced qualified counsellors and to get enough experience you usually end up having to work for free at a charity for a few years after qualifying, so it's a long road. If you are willing to go back to school, have you thought of occupational therapy or speech and language therapy? Job prospects for those and work life balance are very good. Audiology too (if you don't mind looking in other people's ears all day!) If you do end up going the counselling way, please remember that not all counselling schools are created equal and there are some real charlatans out there who are very happy to take your money and offer you nothing in return, so do your research before committing. And always go with a UKCP course and avoid BACP.

Out of interest @roadwarrior what is the first between UKCP and BACP? Thanks

I retrained as an OT at 40. I have very flexible working hours

@Snorkello I recommend a UKCP course above any other because it leads to automatic accreditation at the end, and BACP courses don’t. I think, if you're going to go for it, try to get a place at somewhere offering a Level 7 Masters that is university accredited, ideally run from small college type environments. Somewhere like The Berne Institute in Kegworth, Sherwood Institute Nottingham, TA Leeds Institute, North London TA or Link Centre or Manchester Institute of Psychotherapy,. These all have very good reputations and the training and clinical components they offer are robust and put you in a much better place in the job market. Whatever you do, don't go for the local college or counselling training "academy". It is very hit and miss (mostly miss) and you could end up wasting a lot of time and money.

@SnarkyBag I had never considered OT until somebody else mentioned it to me very recently. If you don't mind me asking, what does your average day look like and hours etc? It's definitely something I'm going to look into further and get more information on. Did you do a degree in OT?

I started out part time but work full time now. I do all my admin from home so generally don’t leave the house until after the kids have left for school and am usually home around 2.30pm and then work at home. Sometime I’ll do stuff in the evenings or weekends rather than working straight through.

I was able to ask for a term time only roles so school holidays I’m home so all in all pretty good work life balance for me!

I did a 3 year degree which include 3 practice placements

As far as I know counselling is hard because you have to find your own clients in private practice? Not sure about other forms. I've heard good things about OT careers.

@SnarkyBag they are very ideal hours and would be perfect for me. Do you work for the NHS or private sector?

I could have written what you did 6 years ago.

I had my son July 2014 and due to return in the March 2015 and decided not to as I hated my job. I had worked in retail and sales before but most recent job had been a customer services manager in a call centre.

I decided to retrain in something that I would love. I wanted a career/profession. I considered a social worker, teacher, nurse, midwife and then the thought of being a midwife would not leave me. I started an access course in September 2015 which took a year. Then uni September 2016. I qualified September 2019 and started as a band 5 midwife December 2019 and just became a band 6 midwife December 2020.

Of course it has been hard work and I have had to make sacrifices over the 4 years of studying but it has been so worth it. I now do a job that I genuinely LOVE and have good pay, good progression opportunities, good pension and benefits.

I feel I have a great home/work balance. I work 3 long shifts a week and I have 4 with my family. It was harder at uni as you have assignments as well as placement. I often work nights so I see my kids more. I can book off certain days well in advance. I have never missed a parents evening, school play, or birthday. I will miss Christmas day every 2 years but we just do Christmas day another day and miss new years on the opposite year which is fine!

Sorry its all a block. I wrote it on separate lines but the app has made it all bunch up!

@00deed1988 thank you so much for your response, that's so helpful!! I have applied and have been accepted onto an access course in nursing and healthcare professions which starts in September so at least I have another year to fully decide what I want to do and I'm hoping the access course will give me some clarity.

I have really thought about being a midwife and love the idea of being one! When I had my baby last year I received really poor care so I'm really motivated to train to ensure other women don't receive such poor care and have been thinking about it pretty much since I gave brith! The only thing that's puts me off is, how do you deal with such responsibility of somebody's unborn child?! The thought of missing something or getting something wrong really frightens me and is the main thing that's putting me off. Which is probably very silly really. And also working nights put me off as I was worried I'd spend less time with my son, but your post has reassured me this isn't such a big problem than I thought!

Did you have to do extra training to become a band 6 midwife?

Thanks so much ☺️

[quote daisysun]@00deed1988 thank you so much for your response, that's so helpful!! I have applied and have been accepted onto an access course in nursing and healthcare professions which starts in September so at least I have another year to fully decide what I want to do and I'm hoping the access course will give me some clarity.

I have really thought about being a midwife and love the idea of being one! When I had my baby last year I received really poor care so I'm really motivated to train to ensure other women don't receive such poor care and have been thinking about it pretty much since I gave brith! The only thing that's puts me off is, how do you deal with such responsibility of somebody's unborn child?! The thought of missing something or getting something wrong really frightens me and is the main thing that's putting me off. Which is probably very silly really. And also working nights put me off as I was worried I'd spend less time with my son, but your post has reassured me this isn't such a big problem than I thought!

Did you have to do extra training to become a band 6 midwife?

Thanks so much ☺️ [/quote]
It isn't silly at all. I still feel like that all the time. But in a ward it isn't all on you, your job is to escalate. You are trained to look for subtle hints that things may be going wrong long before they do and you escalate. There are safeguards in place to ensure that it isn't all on you. Regular double checking of things. Ward rounds. Of course things do go wrong sometimes with no warning but you have an emergency buzzer and if you pull it you have about 10 people in your room within seconds to help assist. Then of course you have the sad times that women suffer bereavement which I think most people worry about. They are hard I think no matter how many you deal with. But the care you provide is so rewarding!

For nights I sleep in the day while kids are at school then wake up to have dinner with them/help with homework. At the moment I work about an hour and a half from where I live so I'm not usually at home for school drop offs but when I was training I was home for those. Then would go home to sleep all day again....I would say the housework suffers though when I am on nights!I have always worked shifts apart from 1 year that I did Monday to Friday 9-5 (with an hour and a half travel each way) and I hated it. That wouldn't work either with being able to go to all the kids things. Plus barely see them in the week for 5 days. This way I see them much more!

For midwives band 6 is like a natural progression. When you qualify you start on a band 5 and you go through your preceptorship which usually takes 6 months to a year and you have certain competencies you have to do like suturing and cannulas. Once you sign those off you automatically move up to a band 6. Very different to nursing.

The access course sounds like a good plan. You can explore your options and see what will suit you.

@00deed1988 thank you so much for your responses, you've given me a lot to think about! I've just looked at my local university's entry requirements for midwifery and they are pretty all distinctions! How did you manage studying and being on placements with a little one?

@00deed1988 also, did you do any work experience alongside your access course?

[quote daisysun]@00deed1988 thank you so much for your responses, you've given me a lot to think about! I've just looked at my local university's entry requirements for midwifery and they are pretty all distinctions! How did you manage studying and being on placements with a little one? [/quote]
Some of the unis are quite competitive. There were over 1100 applications for 70 places. I was gobsmacked I got in on my 1st try to be honest. I really didn't think I would.

When I started uni he had just turned 2. It was hard as he has always been a mummies boy and we were still cosleeping but tbh I was never built to be a SAHM. We also have my stepson full time so when I had him I automatically became a SAHM to a 3 year old with ASD who was going through a lot of violent behaviour issues and newborn which was bloody hard work. So going back to 'work' was like getting a part of me back. Having adult company and conversation. Learning something new. It was great for me and improved my mental health massively. Of course I did miss them and sometimes I wouldn't see them for 3 days in a row and all I wanted to do when I got home was wake them up for a cuddle but I felt our time together was more valuable. It wasn't all the boring day to day routine. We went out and had fun. It made me value them more and see how lucky I was. Obviously this doesn't ring true for everyone but for me it did.

[quote daisysun]@00deed1988 also, did you do any work experience alongside your access course?[/quote]
No, I didn't. My uni did actually say it required 20 days of work experience but I had none. I did want to but was really difficult to volunteer. I spoke a lot in my personal statement and interviews about transferable skills from my customer service and management jobs as well as helping provide care for my nan when she was terminally ill. The access course is quite heavy on the assignments and just getting used to doing things like that alongside the kids and looking after a home, if felt hard to fit anything else in although people on my access course somehow had part time jobs and kids...no idea...superheros! If you can manage some then it will always make it more beneficial. If you have Facebook I can PM you a Facebook group that is dedicated to people who are aspiring to be midwives as well as lots of qualified ones. I got so much of an insight through there when I was thinking of applying and they offer lots if advice about specific unis and personal statements!

@00deed1988 I had my college interview yesterday and have been accepted onto the Access course and have decided to take the plunge into midwifery! Thanks so much, you definitely helped make my mind up! Which university did you go to? Yes, that'd be great thank you! Be great to speak to other people on the same path.

@ZacsMine143

Watching this thread with interest. I'm just sick of my current role as a Teaching assistant. I love the children I work with but the poor management, ridiculous work place politics, shit pay £12,500 working 5 days despite being over qualified for the role, has all made me loath going to work. I only like that it means I actually get home and have time with LO as hes at nursery.

I think that most TAs / school support staff are over qualified / over worked and under paid but doing it as it fits in with DCs!Me included!