what can I retrain in that will definitely lead to a job?

[indemandjobs]

I am about to lose my job (redundancy). Have young kids and no income. I am early 50s. What can I retrain in that will lead to definitely getting a job - so looking for something in a high demand /low supply area.

Can only afford to retrain for a year ( so no degrees) unless its an on the job training deal.

Nothing in IT/ tech as I am not good at that.

Nothing involving blood or gore as I am too squeamish and nothing where someone might die if I make a mistake as I will make mistakes.

Any help gratefully received as I am sick with worry.

Thank you.

You can retake your maths GCSE online, easily

Yes of course

Accountancy. You mostly train on the job but could do some initial courses in a year (eg AAT). You could even apply to a grad programme at a larger firm. My firm is recruiting experienced hires into junior roles that don’t even require you to retrain formally, they will just teach you on the job.

I had a lifelong interest in gardening, it has always been my hobby. I trained at the local college, one day a week for two academic years - but there are much shorter courses.

The key to my enjoying my new job was following my existing interest I think. Maybe you have something like that you could do?

Bookkeeping? Child minding/nursery/teaching assistant? Retail?

Use ChatGPT as your career coach. Use it to help you identify your skills, interests, etc. Just tell it that is it your 'career change coach' and ask it to ask you questions so that it can help you figure out what you might be able to do next. You can speak your answers to it to speed the whole thing up.

It will likely identify things you've never thought of. Then you can use it to help you draft your CV, applications, etc

Other thoughts: I mean this kindly, but your responses are quite negative. I get it, your confidence has been knocked. But until you can see your own positive attributes, skills, etc, it will be hard for a potential employer to see them.

Also - not bookkeeping! (Or anything else that's going to be swallowed up by AI very shortly). You either need to lean into your existing skills and experience or gain new ones in areas that are relatively safe/ will require humans to do.

Good luck! Career changing at our age is tough, but it can be done (I have!)

Hair ...

Bus driver

Have you used the National Careers Service. It's free and opne to all adults of any age

https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/

Might be useful for skills assessment and directing you to free resources

How about social work? You could do a masters. There are always jobs and would pay what you need.

Wouldn’t you have to be based at Sizewell or Hinckley Point though? May not be that convinient for many.

The Open University do some free 'courses'.

Your local college will have courses for the unemployed and they may include IT ones. A lot do free distance learning courses too as they're easy ways to get funding. Functional skills maths run throughout the year usually. They should also have independent careers advisers, or your local library will. They'll all be able to help you with options, skills and job hunting.

you would also need to be a coded welder with recognised training and experience behind you. They are not going to let a rookie do welds on things that operate high pressure whose failure could be catastrophic.

One other thing OP - sign on for job seekers' allowance (JSA)... It's easy to do and it means your national insurance payments are made while you're looking for work and you don't lose any pension entitlement.

If you have funds to cope for a while, as suggested in your post, then start your own business.

Housing Officer jobs or Tenancy Support. People come to this from varied backgrounds. You can learn on the job. And if you have good people skills and you’re reliable then you can establish a good reputation within the sector

My DS got a job as a project manager in the civil service on a really good salary, she had 0 experience of the area she went to work in but had experience of leading teams in other roles and good networking skills. A project management role may be good for you without having to pay out for training.
Recruitment for an agency, particularly health and social card agencies, would match your skills, possibly HR roles, again roles that you won't need to retrain for and could just walk in to with on the job training.
Social prescribing if that's in your area, may be called something else but they're employed by GP surgeries and link in with all the community resources to sign post people to organisations that can improve their wellbeing.

@Iloveshihtzus I was thinking the exact same thing as this poster.

I didn't want to just pm you without asking first.

Dog or cat sitter? Always in demand as far as I can see, mine has to turn people down.

I know sitters who generally have CRB checks and animal first aid certificates which may not take too long to acquire.

Social work training scheme - https://thefrontline.org.uk/become-a-social-worker/approach-social-work/

or sounds like you’d be a good entry level project manager, and with a couple accreditations (easy to get - prince 2 / agile etc) you should then be quite employable in local government or public sector eg higher education project work.

EAs can be very well paid in some private organisations, get yourself a couple of temp experiences and then apply for something more permanent

where in the country are you?

Hairdresser, chiropodist, phlebotomist, celebrant, funeral director (they’re not all family owned, coop etc) social media content creator, dog walker

Train bus or hgv driver

You can’t just dismiss something that fits your described experience, skills and interests so clearly. At least ask the poster if they have any pointers on how to get started. You’ve acknowledged that it’s not going to fall into your lap, so hustle!

You mentioned you liked the statistics course, how about being an Interviewer for the Office of National Statistics? https://careers.ons.gov.uk/find-your-role/survey-and-field-operations/