How to change career

fRAiLtY-

Hi,

Obviously quite an open ended question. I don't wish to post an endless amount of diatribe however I feel it's important to give people the full story.

I currently earn around £20k per annum which for my area is above average. I'm also well looked after by my employers. My job is in IT and to be honest, it's something I always wanted to do but after doing it for a year I no longer want to. I have worked for the same employer for 7 years however they've moved me about to get me to do what I do now, as to be honest, I'm good at it. The last year as I.T Manager has left me extremely unfulfilled.

I'd love to change my career and honestly I think I have 2 routes initially. An age old dream of mine is to be a teacher, however I understand it's not something I can just "do" on a whim. Failing that I'd love my own business and first and foremost learn a trade, preferably plumbing. Quite a difference there in the 2 but that's just me. My issue is I work 55hrs a week and I need my wage having just bought my first property so can't just drop out and pursue a dream.

So addressing these 1 at a time, I understand it's quite a rigorous and lengthly process to become a teacher. I feel it's the time factor that would hold me back as it's not really something, I think, you can learn to do in your spare time. Academically, I don't forsee a problem there. As for the trade, I have a keen interest in fixing things and would love the different place of work every day aspect to being a tradesman, also without beating around the bush I have hear plumbers are pretty well paid and seldom without work, if you're any good I guess.

I do have a 3rd option, property. I've been bitten by the property bug and have a mortgage advisor on hand who's really a good bloke and compared to what several of my friends my age have ended up with mortgage wise out to get a good deal too! I'd love to do buy-to-lets and buy and sell with a bit of tarting up. The difficulty here I fear is the property market at the moment. My ex-landlord has around 13 houses and dabbles with buy/sells and since losing his very well paid £35k per annum job last year has never looked back and ironically has never been better off, somehow. A cannabis farm in the garage is suspected but without proof it does seem that he's doing alright out of property.

Nothing intrigues and excites me more than being my own boss and my biggest fear is losing my job, even though at the moment I appear particularly secure I'm aware that can change quite quickly. I fear however also my age is against me, I'm not getting any younger (25 this year) and don't want to run out of time in getting into a good and fruitful career.

Any advice, corrections to my thoughts/theories etc is greatly appreciated.

Happy new year by the way to all, many thanks.

Oldernotwiser

Re teaching.

Do you already have a degree? If not, have you considered studying for one part time with an institution like the OU?

artichoke

Re teaching. What age group would you like to teach? Primary,secondary,or sixth form or adult ed.?

There Are new ways of teacher training that are more job based if you already have a degree.

I don,t know all the details but my brother did a postgrad teacher course whilst working...might be worth finding out about.

Art.

paddyrg

Ahhh - the IT saturation problem. I too was ready to jump after 7 years or so, and had a couple of false starts at getting out. Stash cash as hard as you can - whatever you do will require a fresh start and starting at the bottom again, so prepare for pay cuts until you can get yourself settled in your new profession.

Now, after years of 8-6ing in IT, I work putting on huge shows and events around the world, still make less than I did in IT, but enough to be stable. And it's massively more fun. Save hard for a year then make the leap!

cgk1

I will give this 5/10 - it's superficially plausible but you overplayed your hand with some of the little details you've put in to wind people up.

fRAiLtY-

cgk1 wrote: »

I will give this 5/10 - it's superficially plausible but you overplayed your hand with some of the little details you've put in to wind people up.

What on earth are you on about?

fRAiLtY-

artichoke wrote: »

Re teaching. What age group would you like to teach? Primary,secondary,or sixth form or adult ed.?

There Are new ways of teacher training that are more job based if you already have a degree.

I don,t know all the details but my brother did a postgrad teacher course whilst working...might be worth finding out about.

Art.

I'd aim to teach at secondary level really, which I'm guessing the qualifications would need to be higher. What sort of course did your brother do, do you know? Sounds promising.

fRAiLtY-

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Re teaching.

Do you already have a degree? If not, have you considered studying for one part time with an institution like the OU?

No, just A-Levels. I did look at the OU but obviously not in depth enough. Will have another look.

Does anyone else have any points/opinions on the other 2 "options" I mentioned earlier?

Cheers.

Catslovelycats

I'm a teacher and looking to get out of it.
Seriously.
I'd avoid it like the plague.
'Nuff said.

dizzyrascal

You will need a degree and a post grad PGCE to teach. If you can get your degree in a shortage subject then you may qualify for a 20k bursary to study the pgce but currently that only applies if you get a first. I think it is 9k for a 2.1 and nothing for the lower degree grades (could be wrong)

A lot of new rules have come in this year and it seems to change every 5 mins so don't count on the rules being the same when you graduate.
ITC was a shortage subject but I don't think it is now.
Also, there is a move to make all teachers get a masters level qualification fairly soon so it could be a very long road to a career change.

If you teach primary then you don't need a specific subject but you do if you want to teach 11-18. (this is just to get on the PGCE, once you are qualified to teach you could, in theory, teach any subject)
There are supposed to be some different ways to qualify as a teacher coming in, more training in the classroom but I think you would also need a degree to start that route.
There are some schemes still out there for part graduated people (SCITT) and GTP for graduates where they are trained by the school they work for BUT there was talk of changing these and they are hard to get on, plus the pay is low till you qualify, and, there are issues over who accepts the qualification later on.

OU courses are about to get very expensive so it might be worth looking at your local uni for part time courses too unless you can get some funding? Also you might be able to take some of your work based learning to either the OU or a local uni to be used as credit towards your degree (if you did ICT for instance, you might be able to start in year 2 rather than year 1 so it could reduce your time to qualify)
Some uni's do a qualifying degree in a subject with qualified teacher status (worth a look as it is a year shorter but these a seldom part time). It is also possible to do a part time Distance Leaning PGCE too.
I'm guessing that as you have just bought a house you won't be very flexible about which uni you can go to.

I think the rules about student loans will cover part time courses from 2012 which they didn't before but that money will have to be repaid.

Do you have any local careers services that you can use? It might be helpful to sit down with someone and go over your options

Also, and this is very important, you need to get CRB checked and volunteer at some local schools (not as easy as it sounds if you work full time). You won't be considered for a PGCE without understanding what the job is about and some time spent in a classroom.

Sorry it's so long, hope it helps

artichoke

fRAiLtY- wrote: »

I'd aim to teach at secondary level really, which I'm guessing the qualifications would need to be higher. What sort of course did your brother do, do you know? Sounds promising.

My brother teaches in secondary and did a PGCE type course on the job BUT he had a degree with very good results and lots of experience working with young people when he got on the course. So without a degree i don't think this fast track route is viable.

I know nothing about property - but with house prices falling rather than rising i can't see it being easy going down this route at the moment. Nothing seems to be selling in my area and most houses have both a for sale and for rent sign outside - with most people having to rent out as they can not get buyers / and buyers can;t get mortgages.


Re plumbing - i do know a few plumbers - and a few recently qualified ones who are having it tough - i think a lot of people went into plumbing over the past few years hearing reports of plumbers earning lots of money....i am not sure how much the lots of money was related to the increase in property development and people buying and selling houses with new bathrooms every 5 minutes....but the new plumbers i know are struggling to get new business. It is probably area specific but the market seems to be saturated.... i think you would need to do research in your own location...


Re running you own business - what would the business be ? Both me and DH are self employed but it is tough - i think you need to have a passion for what you want to do.....you really need to want to do it to get you through the tough times...

have a browse around the small business forum on here to see what i mean...

good luck

art