Open University and Career change

LittleOne

Hi all,


I can't find anything related to this when I do a forum search.


I am currently 28 and in my third full time position with a successful company. I didn't know what I wanted to do when I was younger so I started a very basic admin role at 19 for a manufacturer and since then have slowly worked my way up to a fairly well paid position with a great company where I've now been for 6 months.


However, I'm not happy. I work very hard and have done well in all my roles, but I am noticing more and more as I get older that being in this environment is making me unhappy. I am out of the house 11 - 12 hours per day with the commute and too exhausted on the evening to do much. I seem to find myself wishing the week away until Friday evening, which is sad. I can't imagine spending the rest of my working life doing this (and I don't even have children... yet!) and I think I need to commit to making a change NOW as I've waited long enough and nothing will change unless I do something about it. I've changed jobs 3 times in 9 years and each time I think the grass will be greener, but each time the novelty of the new job slowly wears off and I'm back to feeling how I did before!


I have done a lot of thinking over the past couple of years and I want to be a position where I can help people and feel like I'm making a difference. There are many different ways in which I could do this, but the one career path that I keep going back to, that I feel I could be potentially very good at, is a counseller.


The only way I could do this is to study on a part time evening course through a local college for 3 - 4 years for the relevant CPCAB qualifications to then be able to start the foundation degree course with the Open University which takes 4 years to complete with part time study.
This would be a huge commitment of time and money, as I'd be looking at 8 years of study before I was even in a position to qualify, at which point I'll be 37 and have a nice big debt! (although the monthly payments are very small) It worries me I may have left it too late as I am about to enter, possibly, the most stressful / busiest time of my life with getting a home and starting a family. However, I think about how fast time passes and in 8 years time I don't want to look back and wonder where the time went and regret not doing it.


My questions are... has anyone got any experience with studying with the Open University and are their qualifications well received by potential employers? Has anyone else commited to a lengthy study period and how did you manage it with work and child commitments - was it worth it all in the end? Is the support provided by the OU good? How straight forward is it to sort the loan for the course fees?


Also, having never been to Uni and not knowing much about student loans, does the debt of a student loan affect you if you want credit in the future? We are in the process of looking to buy a house, so unless something goes drastically wrong, I will have been paying a mortgage for a couple of years before I need to apply for the loan and I don't foresee us needing to apply for any other credit.


The feel I get from doing some research online is that generally it is very good, but I don't personally know anyone who has studied with the OU so I would be really interested in any advice or info you may be able to offer. Alternatively, does anyone have any experience of training to be a Counsellor and how easy / difficult it is during training and securing a job at the end?


Thank you in advance!

sangie595

Becoming a counselor is actually quite hard, even ignoring the lack of any relevant experience and the time it will take. If you are prepared to ditch your life for three years, go full time and into social work. There are always jobs, and in the future they may be the only jobs going! Then if you still want to do counseling, qualify part time from there. That easy you have a qualification that will always be in demand - although it shouldn't be the case, counseling is more and more being considered a frippery in clinical practice. It shouldn't be, but it is one of the things that gets cut first.

LittleOne

Thanks for the info Sangie. One thing that has suprised me after I contacted a few places is that currently you don't need any official qualifications to practice as a counsellor outside of an agency.


I will have a look into social work, thanks.

MoneyMission2015

I am currently studying with the OU. I was the same as you, worked my way up from just being an admin person with just my GCSE's and a BTEC college course under my belt, but no working experience. I worked my way up to being a manager, but felt I was stuck where I was because without qualifications to match my experience, any job I wanted to apply for wouldn't have been interested because I didn't have the degree.


Although I've now had 10 years experience in the industry I work in and 4 years management experience, I knew that if I wanted to get any further I would need to put some time and effort in to studying, so after putting it off for years, I finally took the plunge last October and am now coming to the end of my first module with the OU doing a BA in Business Management.


I'll be honest, it's hard work. I work full time and have 2 kids, have parents who have been in and out of hospital regularly and my in laws have also had their fair share of illness as well, so it's difficult finding the time to study. You have to set aside time and be really strict with yourself about it, it's so easy to say 'I'll do it tomorrow' and all of a sudden another week has passed and you're getting closer and closer to the assignment deadline.


However, the tutor I have is extremely helpful. She runs regular online tutor sessions and has also so far run 2 physical classroom tutorials, with another to be run in the next few weeks. I couldn't attend the classroom tutorials (it's not compulsory) but the tutor provides an audio file of the class and also her own notes which the whole tutor group can access any time they need to.


I can't answer your questions about student loans etc as I'm in the fortunate position that my employer is paying for my training, but I hope some of what I have said above is helpful.


Good luck!


Edited to say, even though I'm only on my first module, I feel it has been worth it. I have been really proud of myself with the results and comments I've had back from my assignments and it feels good knowing I'll get something at the end of all of this.

LittleOne

Thanks, MoneyMission!


Can I ask how long your course will take to complete and how many hours you realistically spend per week on studying?


That is good of your employer to pay for the course. I think, if I go for it, I should probably do the first couple of years at the college and see how it goes. If I manage to get through the 4 years and am still as enthusiastic then I think it'll be worth it, but I guess a lot can change in that time!

szam_

I'm in a similar boat.

I'm 28, doing well, in a big company, but I'm bored out of my mind because I'm at the peak of what I can learn in this role and I cannot go anywhere for the want of trying because my position is both niche and requires a broad skillset, not needing to specialise in any single skill or technology. I have some lousy GCSE results which in no way reflect my potential, or my current skillset.

Spoken to a couple of proper recruiters recently, got turned down for a role this week citing lack of client facing experience (i'm a consultant, not sure how that works) but my technical skills are good. They've told me I really need to get a degree behind me to massively boost my income and get specialised once doing so.

I don't have the distractions of kids, or long commutes, but I commit to playing football quite a bit and I need to spend some time outside of my desk job to lose weight and get fitter (for problem health reasons), not exactly massive commitments I know, but not something I want to give up.

I'm signing up for this October, doing Software Engineering with Business. As someone with very few qualifications, going up for jobs against graduates with years of experience, I don't anticipate getting very far.

From what I heard, OU courses are highly regarded because of the commitment it takes to do one on top of working (assuming you are working) along with the skills you gain from it.

I'm commited to not only completing the course, but getting the highest grade possible, I don't want to settle for anything but the best result, and even considering completing a masters afterwards.

For me, I couldn't do it and just coast through it with average grades, I have plans for the future and this will massively help my chances.

The student loan also doesn't affect your credit score. I always heard people at Uni around the time I probably wished I was there, complaining about being in debt for the rest of their lives and a load of other rubbish. It's completely not unjustified. Repayment is taken from your future wages at a set % and doesn't amount to a great deal until you're on a much higher wage anyway. Personally, I wouldn't even notice it all that much, I'd be grateful for having the boosted earning power that can come with a degree with a bit of a sacrifice to pay it back. You're not in debt in the conventional sense.