Advice please

purcel

Hi,

I am hoping someone will be able to help me make up my mind whether I should start an open uni course. I have dropped out from uni when I was 21 without finishing it and up until now I have been doing lots of different jobs( support worker, admin, etc).

I am almost 35 and for some reason I am starting to regret that I haven't finished my uni and I being fed up of not having a better job( career development is not an option in the job I am doing at the moment due to no openings) and earning not a lot.

I would like to do an engineering degree as I really liked Maths and I know I will enjoy it, but I am worried about spending 6 or more years of my life and still not being able to get a decent job with a decent wage due to me not having any on the job experience.

Any thoughts on this please? Did anyone finished an engineering degree and managed to get a decent job after? Bearing in mind I am a woman and will be over 40 years old when I will finish.
Thank you all.

GothicStirling

The government are absolutely desperate to attract women into engineering, so expect to see opportunities open up soon. The best way to improve your chances of getting an engineering job when you've graduated is to get some voluntary work experience (this is how I got a job with English Heritage. Have you been to the National Careers Service or Prospect.ac.uk websites, they will give you an idea of employers etc.

Voyager2002

Many people would associate Maths with Accountancy rather than Engineering... Did you also enjoy Physics? Do you like solving practical problems, finding ways to make things work?

Fortunately, the early stages of an OU degree can be the foundation for many different directions, so you don't need to decide right now. And do bear in mind that once you have successfully completed one of their course units you will have something to show a prospective employer, and so could gradually move into jobs that provided experience more relevant to your chosen future. After six years of part-time study you should have been able to gain at least some relevant work experience.

wdah

In formal education too much emphasis is put on job prospects at the end of the course - they're not the be all and end all. If you know you'll enjoy studying a subject, and that you'll feel a sense of accomplishment in completing the qualification, then perhaps that's enough reason to do it. Who knows what doors it will open.

agrinnall

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Many people would associate Maths with Accountancy rather than Engineering... Did you also enjoy Physics? Do you like solving practical problems, finding ways to make things work?

Some might, but I would say maths is an absolutely critical element of engineering, possibly even more than physics - if someone don't have an aptitude for maths I would expect them to find it very difficult to complete an engineering degree, whereas the physics can be learned by someone who is prepared to put in the work (and has the maths to understand what they're being taught.

Dunroamin

How many years of HE study have you done and in what subject?

purcel

i have completed 3 years of chemistry studies, in a different European country, which I didn't actually enjoy.

brendon

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Many people would associate Maths with Accountancy rather than Engineering..

Everybody except Mathematicians and Accountants.

amiehall

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Many people would associate Maths with Accountancy rather than Engineering...

A lot of people seem genuinely to have no idea what you would study on a maths degree. Whenever I tell people that's what I study, they seem to assume I would be naturally gifted when it comes to simple mental maths. It's like they think I've spent the past 3 years learning how to add up and work out percentages.

Clearly you need basic numeracy skills to be an accountant, but that's not what you would study a maths degree to achieve.

Dunroamin

purcel wrote: »

i have completed 3 years of chemistry studies, in a different European country, which I didn't actually enjoy.

Your enjoyment isn't relevant - your funding might be.