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Help, I have come to the crunch point! Can you help me decide what I should be doing?

22 replies

BranchingOut · 13/06/2011 13:26

Up till now I have been working in education and reached quite a senior post prior to mat leave. I was not able to go back to my post and had some additional time out.

I have now come to the point where I need to decide if I am going to re-train and go in a different direction. It has come to the crunch eg. we have a nursery place we need to accept or reject (starting for September). However, if we take up the nursery place (which my DH wants us to do) then I will need to go out to work on a temping basis (supply teaching) in order to pay for it. The supply teaching work would not bring in any money over and above the nursery fees and is very unlikely to take my career forward - it is quite a few steps back down the ladder. I have looked around for pt jobs at my level and had some interviews, but have not been succesful... Obviously a lot of people are chasing those jobs!

I have developed some self-employed and freelance work, but it is fairly unreliable in terms of bringing in money. It needs to be run alongside something else.

I am therefore interested in re-training in something where:

  1. I am supporting people to make their lives better
  2. It is fairly flexible, maybe on an hour by hour basis
  3. It has fairly good professional standing
  4. I am working with individuals or small groups
  5. you can work part-time

    I am very interested in women/mothers/babies and have been volunteering as a bf peer supporter, however I would have to do more training and have more experience in order to be eligible for any paid roles.

    Can you suggest something I might do?

    On the assets side:

    I have money in the bank to pay for re-training
    I am intelligent, hardworking and find it fairly easy to pass exams/complete courses.
    About 1 day per week childcare support from a family member.

    Thanks in advance!
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LaCiccolina · 13/06/2011 20:01

Fitness and Health? Personal Trainer? YMCA do good courses. Beauty Therapy? Massage?

Sorry I may have misread but cant tell if you specifically want something in line with what you already do or an absolute about face. Any of these could relate and/or be stand alone.

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Bue · 13/06/2011 20:19

Well midwifery leaps out given your interests in women, mothers, BF, etc. but it's such an obvious link that I assume if you really wanted to do that you'd already know it. (It's also not terribly flexible, though it fulfils all your other criteria.)

I'm not sure if you're up for serious retraining, like a whole degree, or if you're looking for something more quickly achievable?

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BranchingOut · 13/06/2011 21:36

Anything really, I have thought of a few avenues, but I wanted to see what some fresh minds came up with! :)

The type of training I had in mind was something along the lines of 2 years part time, 3 at a push.

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notdesigner · 15/06/2011 09:46

Have you considered either a training role in business - you would have lots of crossover skills from your teaching, or counselling (loads of different types of counselling roles you could consider - relationship, career, life coaching etc) which would fulfill your desire to help people, you would need to retrain but you could fit this in on a part time basis - again your teaching experience would help here. good luck!

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drcrab · 15/06/2011 15:54

have you been in touch with your local NCT branch and look into training as an antenatal/postnatal counsellor?

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BranchingOut · 16/06/2011 15:40

Thanks ladies (gents?), lots of useful ideas.

I quite like the business training idea.

The ideas that had been rattling around inside my head were:

Life coach
counsellor
careers coach?
antenatal teacher
breastfeeding counsellor

So it is interesting to see that some of you came up with similar things.

Sorry, definitely not fit enough for the personal trainer type roles!

Thanks again.

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flyingintheattic · 16/06/2011 17:37

I'd be careful with supply work, it can be very variable and may not bring in any regular money, you are much better going in a different direction.

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MamaMimi · 16/06/2011 17:42

Doula?

Although you could be called on at all hours in this role I suppose.

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NormanTebbit · 16/06/2011 17:42

Educational Psychology?

Speech Therapy?

You can do an MSc in Speech therapy over two years, Ed Psych you might need to do a psych degree but this could be done in a few years. Ed psych training is paid IIRC

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BranchingOut · 16/06/2011 19:09

Ooh, thanks. Yes, some good ones there.

I am really not keen on doing supply work, but this is a 'use it or lose it' place at the nursery that we would want to be using if I did get a proper job. Can't defer for various reasons. Hoping to fit any training alongside the supply work.

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FridayFanjoFun · 16/06/2011 20:58

Adult education? There is more hourly paid work in FE than in school work, ime. You could do some CPD - maybe specialise in adult literacy or SEN work?

Higher level TA work? Most TAs wouldnt work more than 30 hours a week. Money is crap and it isnt high status, but it has many of the benefits of teaching without the marking/prep and if you have QTS you'll be snapped up, I'd imagine.

I would think carefully about Ed Psych - extremely tough to get into (years of training).

On the retraining front: Speech and Language Therapy (but this is a service that is being cut viciously in the current climate, in the public sector at least) or Occupational Therapy, maybe?

Or could you look into some sort of training role in the private sector?

Charities are a good place to look for vaguely educational roles.

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titferbrains · 17/06/2011 09:57

Breastfeeding counsellor - such an important and amazing job! Could you have a chat to a doula about what this entails? My doula has just recently passed her exams.

Are you interested in teaching hypnobirthing?

Could you work for the NCT?

Are there any other charities you'd be interested in? My friend works for an organisation that helps people to get back into employment after long periods out of the workforce - helping with forms, CVs, interviews, lifeskills etc.

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BranchingOut · 17/06/2011 12:30

I am trying to get into some FE work involving training TAs so that definitely works for me. THe only problem with FE roles is that there is a separate qualification for teaching adults, so I am not really qualified to do that apart from roles relating to school-focused training.

THe 'helping people get back into work' role sounds interesting. WOuld you be happy to say which organisation she works for?

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FridayFanjoFun · 17/06/2011 12:42

It is fairly straightforward to get hourly paid FE lecturing work without a PGCSE in Post-Compulsory Ed or a PTLLS/CTLLS/DTLLS etc if you have a subject you can teach. May be worth looking out around now (and again in Sept) at your local college websites.

'Helping people get back in to work' sounds good and is good (it's what I have done for years) but it is a really bad time for that whole sector, if I am brutally honest. There are gazillions of highly trained people (with the QCG or PGDip Guidance) who are out of work because of public sector cuts, which means there are many, many people chasing very, very few jobs in that area.

Sorry to sound so doom and gloom. Like everything, if you are determined I am sure you could find something, but just wanted to warn you that it is not a great time for people entering this sector without experience.

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FridayFanjoFun · 17/06/2011 12:43

What I should have said re: FE hour is that often they will take on good but unqualified people from industry who are 'willing to gain a relevant qualification' within a set period of time - usually 2 years.

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FridayFanjoFun · 17/06/2011 12:43

FE hours

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titferbrains · 17/06/2011 16:55

oops sorry didn't see your question earlier. It's called Action For Employment but the website might be www.a4e.co.uk or something similar.

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xiaojwww · 20/06/2011 02:53

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BranchingOut · 20/06/2011 14:21

Thanks for your input Friday fun and Titfer brains (decluttering thread?! :))

Will keep thinking it all over and update at some point in the future!

I am urgently trying to line up an appointment or two with a careers adviser myself as I think I definitely need some external input.

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andreaberlin · 22/06/2011 17:11

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BranchingOut · 20/03/2013 06:55

Just to update. I stumbled upon my own old thread while searching for something.

In the end, after a further three months of searching, I found a brilliant three day a week job in a voluntary organisation. In my first year there i also did further training in BF support in my own time, so am now qualified in that too!

The job I have involves developing training, so I am possibly looking at freelance training at some point in the future.

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lisata · 21/03/2013 17:12

Thanks for the update ... gives all of us hope (:

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