What do I do?

[LittleStarBar]

Hi. Can anybody help me work this out?
I feel absolutely lost on which path to take.

The only real work experience I have is in care. Believe me, I'm beating myself up about the fact I didn't train in anything or get a trade behind myself or something. I'm 40.

I never get so much as an interview for anything other than home care.

I loved working in a care home, but I have no childcare help & can't find anything in a care home that isn't ridiculous hours.

I tried home care & there was about 500 reasons why it was a terrible fit for me, including walking to & from the clients (I can't drive)
I have developed a problem with my foot that I'm waiting for physio for, and
Shockingly bad behaviour from the company itself.

Since I was on Universal credit I wasn't allowed to just quit, but my work coach knew of only about half of the problems I was having & he practically begged me to quit & stop letting them treat me that way.

(Sorry this is so long)

I can't find anything else. I've applied for any office jobs that I can, trainee/no experience etc. I can't get anything. I'm really bad with tech so anything that says 'Has to be confident using word' or similar is out.

But apart from that I'm applying for everything. I quite like the idea of being able to wear nice clothes that don't get covered in whatever, & a walk to the job, then stay there for 6 hours or so before walking home, instead of wandering around in the rain for an hour, in for half an hour's work, then wandering around for another half an hour etc.

So ill get to the point. I have an interview for homecare next week. I don't want to do homecare but any job is better than no job, right?

I have to pay £60 for my CRB which is a LOT of money for me. (They pay it back after 300 hours service)

The company isn't in my home town. One of the MAJOR problems with the last one was having to travel for training etc & it was the first thing my work coach asked me about this one (is it in my town)

I've just been offered a place on a computers for beginners course. It will take 3 weeks. I hope that this will help me to find an office job.

So, do I go for the interview & tell them I can't start for 3 weeks? Or not do the interview as it will most likely be just as bad as the last one?
Take the job & keep trying & trying for an office job?/don't take it & keep applying for an office job? Bear in mind that this company can't be any worse than the last one. (My work coach wont be sympathetic if I quit a second time)

I don't know what to do. I'm so low. I can't find anything apart from these homecare jobs. Nobody else will give me a chance but I don't deserve one either. It's my fault for not getting my life in order years ago.

Any kind words of wisdom?!

Have you tried a GP surgery? They would snap you up as a healthcare assistant with all your experience and any gaps or extras they will train you up in. Look on NHS jobs or individual surgery websites.

Thanks Pippioddstocking* I have looked at gp surgery but (if I remember correctly) they are one of the ones that say you need to be computer efficient.

That's the sort of job I'd like I think, as it still has a caring side to it. I have applied for 7 receptionist jobs at the hospital but never get so much as a 'No thank you'.

Have you applied for healthcare assistant at the hospital even on their bank staff?

RandomMess I have. I don't hear back. The hospital would be good because it's on the same bus route as my children's school.

I haven't worked for 5 years (apart from those 3 months homecare) so I know that isn't helping either.

No cleaner or catering posts either I guess.

Prioritise the computer course. To upskill yourself.
Do you have any sort of laptop at home?

After that see if you can do a bit of volunteering where you use the computer skills? People used to volunteer to help others use computers at library, for instance.
Else you can use the library computers to gain more skills.

The demand for care workers is so high right now, if you can afford to delay, you'll alway easily get more care work when it's more convenient.

oh wait, you never wrote that huge long OP on a phone -- you do have a computer at home? What skills will the course give you?

lijkk I currently have a laptop on loan from the school but no, I wrote that essay on my phone. I can type. (I was stuck on something basic the other day so my work coach helped me)

Volunteering is a good idea, I was asking about this the other day (answer, yes volunteering is ok as long as it doesn't take over from your job hunting)

RandomMess I've applied for cleaner too.

I'm not sure what skills it will give me tbh. Just to say that I've done a basics course instead of doing nothing to gain skills I suppose?

Do you have a Citizens advice bureau near you ? They take a lot of volunteers and you may be able to gain valuable experience in advice work or admin skills. They offer great training.

Have you ever considered being a teaching assistant in a school? There is a huge shortage of them all over the country and your experience with care would definitely help you get a position. A school will then give you some induction to get used to their policies and procedures, including their online computer systems, and they can also pay to put you on courses to build up your CV too. Depending on which school you apply for, the job typically involves support in the classroom for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. A lot of the teaching assistants I hired or interviewed had a background in care work.

Also to add an awful lot of schools now use Google Suite products (e.g. Docs, Sheets, Drive, Gmail) instead of the typical Microsoft products (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook, OneDrive) and Google has its own online learning platform which you can just open up and learn as you go without needing to go on a course
support.google.com/a/users/topic/9247638?hl=en&ref_topic=7394060,2938454,

Thank you so much for that Google learning tip SleepingFrog, that looks absolutely brilliant

Whenever I see teaching assistant jobs they always say that you need a degree to even get started, I will definitely look into it some more though.

I feel like that's exactly what I need, somebody to just give me a chance... I keep getting told about these... 'This company will hire anybody!' & then I apply & hear nothing. It's really hard to not get down about it. Yet I can't get through a day without 16 (it feels like) care homes contacting me, & once I tell them my availabilty then they aren't interested either.

Babyroobs Thank you, we do have one, I hadn't thought of that.

Sorry, SleepingFrog, can I just ask you, what would you do about the homecare interview if you were me?

So, on further investigation it turns out that this homecare job isn't going to work.

I need to get to the office for any training etc & that's 40 mins on the bus, then a half an hour walk, & the buses only run every 2 hours. I can't risk being stuck that far away from my kids.

Onwards & upwards! Computer course & office working, here I come!

@LittleStarBar definitely don't do the interview if you're not happy with the role.

You don't need a degree for a teaching assistant but you do for teacher training. Good sites to look up teaching assistant roles are:
www.mynewterm.com/
www.tes.com/jobs/

When roles say 'confident with computers' unless they are more advanced roles or have very specific details what they tend to mean is

• can send and receive emails
• can create a letter or similar in a word document
• can fill in cells on a spreadsheet
• can learn to use our website based bespoke system

You can do some Microsoft web based intro courses completely free of charge on the Microsoft website - support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/basic-tasks-in-word-87b3243c-b0bf-4a29-82aa-09a681999fdc

You can learn on the job how to do things like use their scanner to scan a document in and send it to the computer

Thank you HalfShrukMoreToGo That's really helpful. I found the other computer course by myself... I feel like my job coach could be telling me about these things but he just isn't!

Thank you SleepingFrog I've just had a look & there's nothing nearby at the moment but I've saved them so I can keep checking!