Complete career change. Teacher?? Doctor? Pharmacist?

[thinkingoutofthebox]

Hi all.

I am completey confused about where I want my career to go. My degree is in Communication studies and English and I have worked for about 3 years in the pr/journalsim field before getting married and having kids. I have a dd 6 and ds 4, and as of september I will have ME/WOMAN/CAREER back! and I really want to do something i'm passionate about. Trouble is, I am passionate about alot!

My character is such that I hate doing the same thing day in day out. I love working with children, I love educating both adults and young children. I think out of the box.

There are two methods of teaching that i'm interested in Reggio Emilia and Philospohy for children. Whereby I would like to take these concepts to schools and nuseries, however I have been told it's best if i had nvqs and a PGCE for teachers to take me seriosuly. I also want to teach in FE college 'effective communication' maybe one evening a week. Again more qualifications needed.

So the point here is that my life would be very varied but the income will totally depend on me selling my services then carrying them out...alot of hard work and a bit nervous about how much money i will bring home each month. But could do supply teaching to make sure I bring in a wage until things are up and running. there could be huge job satisfaction, variety and opportunity to travel and take these teaching methods to other countries (tavel is high on the agenda! feesible? I don't know but on the wish list!)

Then a completely diffeent passion of mine and regret was that I never followed the medicine route. I worked as pharamacy assistant for 5 years while I was at college and uni and passed my exams with flying colours with not too much effort because I always 'got it' I loved and understood pharamacy. But i followd the arts route at uni.

But am I too old for pharamcy/doctor? will too much tme be taken away from the kids? I have no science a levels. will I be able to travel? would i travel anyway with kids so young? will i get bored if things get monotoneous?

Am i just too confused to do anything??!

pearleyes. I have a degree in Communication studies with English. Can u explain a bit more about St Georges.

mamadoc thanks for that, I have been discussing things with my family most of the day and I think I may have come up with a temporarty solution to the decision I need to make.

As I have missed the pgce primary intake for this sept. I am going to try and get onto the course at st georges and use the year to decide. It may be that I don't even get in because it's fill or I don't pass the entrance exam...then my decsion will be made for me. And if I do get in I may hate it, and if I love it then I will pursue and decide which medical route to take later. I may stick with pharmacy as it will be more family friendly than being a doctor especially if i work as a locum.

I will still however apply for the PGCE this year for a 2010 start because if things go wrong for whatever reason then I still have the teaching route to fall back on.

it might not be too late to do a PGCE this year, especially if there is a SCITT pragramme near you (school centred initial teacher training) basically you are almost completely based in one school for the year, and I think you get paid at the same time! Might be worth a google

I think you need to check out St George's website regarding the foundation course it clearly states "nor can we consider those with degrees. These candidates should apply directly to the MBBS5 or MBBS4, as appropriate".

www.sgul.ac.uk/undergraduate/foundation-for-medicine/entry-requirements

As you have a degree you will have to apply for the four year MBBS as graduates are not accepted onto the five year MBBS. You won't be able to apply for 2010 entry as you need to sit GAMSAT before you apply. The exam is once a year in September....

thanks all

do i need to sit any exam to get on to a MPharm course?

I think it would be best if you research the entrance requirements etc for all the courses you are interested in as only you know what GCSE/A Levels/degree grades you have acheived. Then you'll be able to make decisions about the way forward.

I don't know much about pharmacy except that you'd need a chemistry A level with a pretty high grade - one friend had an offer of AAB which I think may be normal but I expect someone on MN will know more...

I am a hospital pharmacist and I can assure you none of my working day is spent putting pills in boxes! We now have dispensing robots for this, yes really!

You will need a good chemistry a level for pharmacy and ideally biology, maths or physics. You will then need the patience to complete a 4 year degree and a years pre-registration before becoming a qualified pharmacist. Initially pay is better in community pharmacy, if you wish to progress to better paid positions in hospital pharmacy you will need to complete an extra 2 year post graduate clinical qualification, of course all these careers have the mandatory CPD as well.

However I would also like to make you aware of the career option of pharmacy technician.In a hospital setting this is a varied and interesting role and your experiences as a pharmacy assistant would be attractive for an employer.

Pharmacy technicians do some dispensing however they can also work in aseptic units making chemo and intravenous nutrition, they work on the wards ordering medication, talking to patients to obtain medication histories, counselling patients on new medication. They can run pharmacy departments, teach, manage staff, work in medicines information or quality control and more!

You would need to look at NHS jobs for a position of student pharmacy technician and undertake a 2 year paid on the job training period including an NVQ 3. At this point you will have a flexible ok paid job, lots of techs are female so lots of PT and job share posts available. Pay is ok usually NHS band 5-7 when qualified.

Hope this helps, good luck!

oneplusone- I guess having a good support network of friends or family who can help her out with the baby when he's away/ do babysitting so they can get some 1:1 time.
With all the adjustment of your 1st baby and starting out as a junior Dr it will be tough and its best to be prepared for that. They might even consider moving close to their parents if they are supportive.

thanks mamadoc, will pass on your advice. Unfortunately friend has rose coloured specs on re baby and has no idea it's not all cuddles and lovely and fluffy all the time, despite me dropping lots of hints about how tough it can be. Oh well, guess she will find out for herself in the fullness of time like we all did!

there are 16 graduate entry medical programmes UCAS code A101 some for any degree eg KCL, georges and some for science grads eg Barts,oxford

very competitive entry
demanding
hierarchical career,will need to put in the hours days,nights,weekend,bank hols
ongoing exams and ongoing cpd on qualification in addition to following 2 year foundation year programme upon qualification

you would need to show evidence and interest in medical career

other accelerated health care graduate programmes eg
occupational therapy
SALT (speech therapy)
Physio
Nursing

pharmacist- dont just count pills!have a clinical role covering wards, teaching students,work in community too

health care is demanding,sometimes exasperating and very satisfying but you do need to do junior posts and rotations, get exp, work way up.this will not necessarily be family friendly or accommodate the school run,or your commitments

Interesting topic - I have changed careers several times in my life: from research scientist, to manager, to self-employed consultant.

I believe that if you have a wide range of interests then there are many jobs that you could potentially do, and I can empathise totally with thinkingoutofthebox's dilemma. However at some point you have to make a choice and accept that some of them will only ever remain in your imagination as "might-have-beens"

In one of your posts, when you are considering medicine you say that you imagine things might be easier with your children once they are 11+. My own experience of this is that teenagers have an entirely different set of demands. At this age they no longer want a child-minder, nanny, or after school club, yet you may feel they are too young to be left unsupervised for long periods after school. They may not need the intensive time input, for bath-time, reading, etc, but they will have more sophisticated emotional demands (and being teenagers when they want you, they want you NOW).

It was happenstance that I started self-employment when my dc were 11+ but in retrospect it worked out much better than if I had been in a demanding out of the house job with fixed hours.

Good luck in you choices - it's an exciting prospect

Hello All!!

It's been a while hasn't it?! And have a made a decision?....Not quite but I have made an elimination, so I think that helps. I think at present taking all things into account, Doctor is definately out.

Hence left with teaching and pharmacy. I have been doing alot of research into possible professions and ALOT of research into me and what is important to me. and the top 4 are. Family, different experiences and people, travel and lots of money! Very greedy aren't I?! but i'm just being honest with myself. Money has been a huge stress on our family and as my husband is a self employed builder, things can go from very good to very bad in a matter of days. and very bad has been the case for the last few years, although that said, things seem to be looking up for him now and good work is coming in.

So all that said, I think a little direction and stability is needed from at least one of us. So the obvious choice would be pharmacy. But deep down I know that it would be a very serious job with a bit but not too much interaction with people. I would be proud to call myself a pharmacist and working as a locum would mean that even if I worked 3-4 days a week financially things would be very good. 5 years of studyand pre-reg and i'll be set.

And the teaching...for what I want to actually do. which is not actually be in a classroom everyday, taking the practices of Reggio Emilia and Philosophy for children into other schools etc. I would this year try to make the best of a 'wasted year' and next year do the PGCE then a year NQT, and by the time anyone will take my practices seriously it will be the same, 5 years. However I would be my own boss have long hols have different experiences everyday etc but as a pharmacist be paid 3 times as much. and if i was a locum i could still work term time.

Sorry going on a bit aren't i?...but the solution is near...I think

Upon doing endless hours of research. The bottem line about pharmacy/medicine etc was that I like the hospital environment and helping people especially children, making them feel happy and helping them to progess, whether that be in education or in health or emotion. So I think that there is no reason why I can't have both the teaching and medical profession as a career.

Still early days, but as I have this year to wait, I will complete a masters in Psychology and child development and use the reggio emilia and P4C as research and then next year do my PGCE. I think at the end of the PGCE I may be slightly stuck as I'd have to do one year full time as NQT, so I'm not sure what would happen to progessing to child psycholoigist for that year, but lets see.

But eventually with all of the education and research I hope that I will be able to work in hospital as a child psychologist part time or use the methods of P4C and Reggio to help with ADHD and autism and other conditions where children can benefit from an alternative teaching prctice. Not sure how rich it will make me though! but i'm sure there will be job satisfaction

So opinions please. Am I mad?!

Have you thought about training to do home programmes using ABA or another methodology to work with children with ASD?

Or the National Autistic Society runs a befriending scheme, which could provide you with valuable experience of working with children and adults with ASD away from the constraints of an educational setting.

I am a secondary teacher, and love it- however, I would advise you to think long and hard about going down this route if you are not committed to classroom teaching; you will have to do a great deal of it in order to qualify, and if it is not exactly what you want to do, it will eat your soul.

Teaching takes up so much time- there is no flexibility and this may impact on your preferred childcare arrangements.

On the other hand, you may love it and change what you want to do as you go along; I would just be very wary of using a PGCE as a route to anything other than classroom teaching, due to the level of commitment it demands.

I think you may find Child Psychology a better route to go down- or perhaps qualifying as a counsellor specialising in working with young people? This way you could maintain flexibility, work with a variety of client groups and use P4C embedded in your practice.

Good luck

tethersend. Can you Explain more about home programmes using ABA?

Also would I need to have a PGCE if I became a home tutor?

I'm no expert, but used ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) in a school setting with children with ASD, and found it to be incredibly effective.

You would not need a PGCE to be a home tutor in ABA.

Rather than me trying to describe the methodology, have a look at the PEACH website, and also Autism Partnership UK. They will also give you more information about how to set up.

Home programmes involve you working in the child's home on a whole range of skills ranging from eye contact to social skills and academic skills, depending on the individual level of need. I think most tutors have self-employed status, but that would need clarification.

Hope that's of some help!

Update folks!!

I started my masters in psychology today!!! woohoo!!!!