What job could I change to?

nightrider1470

nightrider1470

nightrider1470

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Joined
25 May 2011
Posts
3,299
Am 36.

Care work 5 years
Child care worker 6 years
Currently looking after children with Autism (8 months)

My pay scale is around 17k and I have a young family of 3 to look after so motivated to be earning more.

Thought about fire brigade but not taking on.. Police again aren't hiring..... Mental health nurse is something I think my experience would count for but not got the qualifications to get into uni and it's a 3 year degree.

Open up to any options really with the hope of a company to take me on and train me. Am considering the oil rigs but not sure what skill I could offer.

Any advice or help would be great... Want to stay away from sales as have done that for years when I was younger.

Anyone give any advice please?
 
If you want to get into nursing make sure you check the current/future situation with bursaries etc as I believe these may be getting axed (at least in some cases). It used to be the case that you could effectively get paid to do a degree (due to desire to boost the number of qualified nurses) but I think they are cutting back on this. Once qualified you can then do further training - my wife is currently retraining as a health visitor which pays OK while a student (mid band 5 ~£25k) compared to other courses where you get paid nothing and indeed have to pay tuition fees.

In my opinion the caring profession is 'underpaid' relative to the level of responsibility because effectively you have over 10 years experience in the sector and are getting paid the same as many roles in other industries with only moderate levels of responsibility (second tier retail jobs etc). This won't help you (general comment) but I also think this contributes to high level staff turnover because after a while they will want to be earning more money (like you) even if they are well suited to the profession.

Have a look here for some options: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/Pages/chooseacareer.aspx
 
well if you want to do a uni course an access course would get you on to a fair few, but that makes 4 years all in. the other poss would be paramedic thats a 2 year course but again an access course would be needed and competition for places is high
just an edit to add.yep as just said the money for fees is now being removed so you will have to self fund
 
Have a look at your local authority website and see if their social care teams are hiring. There are a good range of jobs there which could make use of your experience and they're always keen to upskill. In addition the work life balance tends to be good. Best of luck.
 
Thanks all.

Am looking into a probation officer as I think I just need level 3 and 5 diploma and money seems half decent.

I think am going to try and change my job to nights so I can hopefully do my study work at nights
 
nightrider1470 said:
Thanks all.

Am looking into a probation officer as I think I just need level 3 and 5 diploma and money seems half decent.

I think am going to try and change my job to nights so I can hopefully do my study work at nights
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be aware that being a probation officer can be sole destroying job, as you can end up with the same people (and sometimes whole family's)coming back again and again no matter how much work you put in. then again when you do have a break though seeing someone's life transformed is amazing. its not an easy job to do well and its even more thankless at times than healthcare!
go into it with open eyes rather than because you cant think of anything else
 
Isn't most (all?) care working generally going to be poor in salary?

I know my mum works in a private foster care company and (I think) the pay is better than most Council work, she has a degree however and is in a relatively senior position. Maybe see if there's private fostering companies hiring?

In terms of complete change of career, what do you like/good at? (it's a big world out there!). I'd you're after money, long hours and can graft maybe electrician etc? (poor apprentice pay tho!)
 
Off the top of my head, Railway contractors can earn a lot of money. Heaps really and your 'training' is measured in hours or days. It's terrible terrible hours and I do NOT recommend it. Depending where you live, you'll probably have to travel and work irregular hours but you've said in a previous post that you'll consider night time work. Well, there'll certainly be some of that. Don't do it the rest of your life. Seen a lot of guys in their 60s still doing it because it's easy and pays well for what you do. But there's a 90% chance that it'll destroy whatever ambition you have left. Set yourself a target to upskill as fast as possible, earn maximum amounts of money and get out of it in 5 years max.

You'll need to start by getting your PTS ticket and go from there.

Check out Railway People (google it). Find some training providers on there and even jobs. Just Google railway jobs once you have your PTS and see what comes up.
 
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If you considering nursing as stated above you need to consider the bursary being pulled.

Also, if you want to use your skills there is something important to take into consideration. Currently, child mental health is a cliquey set up and the leadership is predominately mental health trained so you need that to get one, now over time you can expect the increasing number and maybe even national guidance to cement that they should be child branch trained. Just something to bear in mind. So you would have to pick the training path correctly (imo Child Branch would be a far far better choice).

Also, it's an area that is being sold off to private companies so is moving more and more out of the NHS.
 
Just been through your post history - I do stalk on occasion :p

How about a financial adviser. Going by your history you do things with 17k (for a family of 5) a year that not even God could do. Convertible, 7.5k budget for a holiday, some questions around getting a Sony 75' LED. Hehe, maybe I'm being unfair and your wife/partner is on a decent wage. :)
 
regulus said:
Off the top of my head, Railway contractors can earn a lot of money. Heaps really and your 'training' is measured in hours or days. It's terrible terrible hours and I do NOT recommend it. Depending where you live, you'll probably have to travel and work irregular hours but you've said in a previous post that you'll consider night time work. Well, there'll certainly be some of that. Don't do it the rest of your life. Seen a lot of guys in their 60s still doing it because it's easy and pays well for what you do. But there's a 90% chance that it'll destroy whatever ambition you have left. Set yourself a target to upskill as fast as possible, earn maximum amounts of money and get out of it in 5 years max.

You'll need to start by getting your PTS ticket and go from there.

Check out Railway People (google it). Find some training providers on there and even jobs. Just Google railway jobs once you have your PTS and see what comes up.
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What do you mean by heaps of money and in what position? I agree about rail work being terrible, terrible in general, unsociable hours the lot.
 
captain dilbert said:
What do you mean by heaps of money and in what position? I agree about rail work being terrible, terrible in general, unsociable hours the lot.
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Well, you can get your crane controller ticket which I think is a 5 day course. Pay anything from 25-30 an hour. If you're lucky and get onto a 3-6 month blockade, do the math on a 10-12 hour day. And usually you won't be working even half those hours, just claim for them.

Same with E.S (engineering supervisor) ticket. Think that's 2 days. Get paid around the same amount. As a contract ES you won't even leave your car. Just issue your permits and go to sleep.

You need PTS (2 days iirc) and COSS (5 days iirc) tickets and the sky's the limit from there.

I done a bit of it when working in Civils back home and got the offer for a PICOP ticket (around 4 days training). Can't remember the exact ins and outs but it was for the Cross Rail project. Permanent nights for 4-5 years at about 35 an hour and 90% of that would've been spent sleeping. Turned it down but it would be handy for someone like the OP to save some money for further studies or whatever.

I remember being on a bridge job on the ELL and one of the PICOPs on that was turning up in a Ferrari every night. Lot of those guys double shift but as I said, when you get high up enough in the food chain, you spent more time in your car sleeping than working.

Not for me but know loads of guys back in the UK doing it. Sure is decent money
 
regulus said:
Off the top of my head, Railway contractors can earn a lot of money. Heaps really and your 'training' is measured in hours or days. It's terrible terrible hours and I do NOT recommend it. Depending where you live, you'll probably have to travel and work irregular hours but you've said in a previous post that you'll consider night time work. Well, there'll certainly be some of that. Don't do it the rest of your life. Seen a lot of guys in their 60s still doing it because it's easy and pays well for what you do. But there's a 90% chance that it'll destroy whatever ambition you have left. Set yourself a target to upskill as fast as possible, earn maximum amounts of money and get out of it in 5 years max.

You'll need to start by getting your PTS ticket and go from there.

Check out Railway People (google it). Find some training providers on there and even jobs. Just Google railway jobs once you have your PTS and see what comes up.
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I have been working on the rail for 15 years, and yes it can destroy any ambitions you have, i keep saying to myself one more year and that's it lol.
 
Spook187 said:
I have been working on the rail for 15 years, and yes it can destroy any ambitions you have, i keep saying to myself one more year and that's it lol.
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You're only 44. Get out of it!! I still have visions of watching guys in their 50s and 60s line up in a queue outside Site Access, hard hats and PTS dutifully in hand, staring straight ahead of them with dead eyes. 9pm on a rainy Saturday night in November, looking ahead to a nice 12 hour shift pulling keys or digging out sleepers. Even when I done the odd E.S shift as part of my bridge works job, I hated the complete waste of life. I suppose it can be fun in your 20s but I think as a career, well, there's better ones out there.
 
regulus said:
You're only 44. Get out of it!! I still have visions of watching guys in their 50s and 60s line up in a queue outside Site Access, hard hats and PTS dutifully in hand, staring straight ahead of them with dead eyes. 9pm on a rainy Saturday night in November, looking ahead to a nice 12 hour shift pulling keys or digging out sleepers. Even when I done the odd E.S shift as part of my bridge works job, I hated the complete waste of life. I suppose it can be fun in your 20s but I think as a career, well, there's better ones out there.
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lol your so right about the dead eyes:(
 
regulus said:
You're only 44. Get out of it!! I still have visions of watching guys in their 50s and 60s line up in a queue outside Site Access, hard hats and PTS dutifully in hand, staring straight ahead of them with dead eyes. 9pm on a rainy Saturday night in November, looking ahead to a nice 12 hour shift pulling keys or digging out sleepers. Even when I done the odd E.S shift as part of my bridge works job, I hated the complete waste of life. I suppose it can be fun in your 20s but I think as a career, well, there's better ones out there.
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I think its a fantastic career on the railways. Contracting maybe not, but permanent contract definitely.
Ive been on 16 years, doing S&T work. The moneys brilliant, good pension, varied and interesting work. My employer is even paying for me to go to University so Ive no complaints.
 
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