I can't get a job as a 55 year old

Pec123

I’m a seasoned product developer with over 15 years of experience in ladieswear, tailoring, and quality assurance. After a career pause to raise my family, I’ve re-engaged through volunteering in online fashion resale and sustainability. I’m passionate about ethical sourcing, circular design, and helping brands deliver quality with conscience. Currently seeking opportunities in sustainable fashion, product innovation, or e-commerce.
Took 20 years out:
With two Autistic boys making sure I was one step ahead of them in attending Parenting and Challenging Behaviour Courses and liaising with their support teams. Now an empty nester with one in Supported Living and the other in university. 
According to the UK Fashion & Textile Association, there are 88,000 people working in fashion and textile manufacturing in the UK, versus 700,000 in 1980.
I apply for everything going even supermarket jobs need experience and I am competing against the education leavers who have the highest Universal Credit engagement. I have no chance!

tacpot12

The answer is probably to become self-employed. You won't have the same problems you are having now. There will be support available from your local authority to get you started. 

gwynlas

There should be seasonal jobs in retail coming up soon, a friend took a nine week role in Boots last year without particularly relevant experience.
Once you have some retail experience you can perhaps use this to facilitate a move into fashion and your specific field

Myci85

Have you considered a career change? It may not be what you want to do, but I would imagine you have a lot of valuable experience supporting children with autism by the sounds, and sometimes that personal experience is enough to get you into a job where you can then keep studying?

I work in children's services and there is an ever growing need for neurodiverse support for children as nurseries and schools are struggling to provide for the increased numbers being diagnosed. 

Pec123

Myci85 said:

Have you considered a career change? It may not be what you want to do, but I would imagine you have a lot of valuable experience supporting children with autism by the sounds, and sometimes that personal experience is enough to get you into a job where you can then keep studying?

I work in children's services and there is an ever growing need for neurodiverse support for children as nurseries and schools are struggling to provide for the increased numbers being diagnosed. 

Yes, I applied through Teaching Personnel passed all the tests, enhanced DBS but they want references of people I have known more than two years to pass the vetting for working with these vulnerable people. The vicar couldn't even answer the questions. My doctor was moved due to houses being built in our area and therefore no longer in their catchment. Original GP has left to look after their children. All the companies I had worked for are out of range for them as of 20 years ago. I have applied for shop work, my original career, admin jobs and charity jobs. I go to the interviews and they all say people who closer matched their criteria got the job. I am volunteering to get experience. The job agencies can't work with me as a prospect due to my 20 year gap. I have sent prospective CV's hoping someone can see where they can fit me in and they all want you to apply only for jobs advertised. I have thought about working for myself as a startup though but really don't know if I could make money.

tacpot12

Pec123 said:

...

... I have thought about working for myself as a startup but really don't know if I could make money.

There's one way to find out. 

Grumpy_chap

Pec123 said:

enhanced DBS but they want references of people I have known more than two years to pass the vetting for working with these vulnerable people. The vicar couldn't even answer the questions. My doctor was moved due to houses being built in our area and therefore no longer in their catchment. Original GP has left to look after their children. All the companies I had worked for are out of range for them as of 20 years ago. 

For enhanced DBS, the people that provide a reference do not need to have known you in a professional capacity, nor are the criteria for referees tight.  I assume you have friends that you have known for at least two years that will vouch for your good character.

Pec123

Grumpy_chap said:

Pec123 said:

enhanced DBS but they want references of people I have known more than two years to pass the vetting for working with these vulnerable people. The vicar couldn't even answer the questions. My doctor was moved due to houses being built in our area and therefore no longer in their catchment. Original GP has left to look after their children. All the companies I had worked for are out of range for them as of 20 years ago. 

For enhanced DBS, the people that provide a reference do not need to have known you in a professional capacity, nor are the criteria for referees tight.  I assume you have friends that you have known for at least two years that will vouch for your good character.

For Teaching Personnel Yes: the people that provide a reference do need to have known you in a professional capacity, and the criteria for referees tight even for a friend referee. I have been isolated as an Autism mum nobody wanted to know us and still don't. My story is tragic: This is my perspective:

How the services have let my Autistic son and my family down. He was diagnosed at 2 but denied a statement to go to a special school. We paid for a private Autistic nursery where he did well before he joined state school at Reception. Parents and children in the local school complained that he was in the school to the Headmistress.  However, my son was badly hurt by the children in the school one day, of which he still has the scar on the back of his head and of course none of the people looking after him saw anything. He was still crying when I got there and told to watch for concussion for the next 24hours. He was 5! I knew I had to get him out of there for his own safety. It was only when I realised with the help of a support group that my son's academic levels were sufficiently behind to take the council to tribunal which was their default setting with everybody, as they believed not everybody would go through with it. I took the council to tribunal who conceded which meant he could go to a special school but not an Autistic one as we wanted. He developed a compulsion for washing vehicles and many other behavioural challenges and somehow got into a secure compound at a mail depot just to wash the vehicles. His behaviour was always challenging but I was denied respite because all little children are challenging! He did not do well academically. The school did not give us any meaningful information about how our son was doing even after a SAR request.  After the pandemic we came across a behaviour report accidently mentioned by the staff (who also let me know I could have 4hrs of respite). This report was not to improve his behaviour but to get him expelled. In there it detailed the violent life he was exposed to of which we had no idea and he had started to self harm which shows how badly his needs were not met. I have photographs of the injuries my son received, I believe from restraining of which the Safeguarding team did not investigate. We did get a little help eventually regarding his challenging behaviour but not anywhere near what he needed and then discharged. Again I tried to get him to an Autistic school where people would understand him and told that he could go on to education until he was 25 with an EHCP. However as he was changing provision it was denied at Tribunal. His compulsion for car washing grew worse and he started to drop out of education so that he could spend his days washing vehicles. There was no chance he was going to continue until 25. He did Lifeskills at college and left with level 2 in English and Maths around age 8. 

 His need to wash cars became so bad that he threatened people over washing cars and was eventually arrested after his 18th birthday. I cried for 5 hours the next day I thought my life was going to end. Social services have always treated me and my family as though we had done something criminal even though they were from the disability team. Going through the legal process for Supported Living was very frightening especially signing blank documents for the Court of Protection.  He has been taken far away from the family home where he is being looked after 24/7 in a Deprivation Of Liberty Home where although the Care Act 2014 said we had a choice we did not. Moreover, we managed to get him to the adult mental health team who additionally diagnosed him with ADHD which means he can be medicated for his condition. We were told we should have been introduced to a Behaviour team years ago and he has just started their program. I am broken because if we were given the help we needed years ago in a proactive way maybe he would not be in Supported Living now and on benefits. As his appointee I applied for Universal Credit and he has been declared Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA). Why was my son and family denied the help we needed in terms of behaviour support, diagnoses, education, medication and only helped in a reactive way. It is going to cost the government now for the rest of his life. I appreciate things could have been much worse if I had not looked after him diligently and he could be in prison as many of them are. There is more I would like to tell you but do not wish risk harm.

itsthelittlethings

Can you use your volunteering referees as “professional”?

Keep plugging away - you will get a break. Identify what you would like to do and cross reference that with what work is available in your local area.  Obviously it’s easier to get a job in an area where there are more jobs going. Look at what skills you may be lacking - do your computer skills need a brush up for instance? If you are on benefits the job centre will often pay for basic training like this.

I know there is ageism in the job market and it’s also very hard to adjust to changing market needs. Obviously it’s going to be a lot harder to gain a role in your original area. But against ageism - some employers value what older workers bring to the workforce, things like reliability and maturity.

Last but not least, how is your CV looking? There are lots of good guides online (do not pay for anything like a CV review!). Really polish it up, two side absolutely maximum, probably one if you have been out of the jobs market, very short paragraph explaining you have had caring responsibilities for children, highlight your volunteering, make it skills based.

I wish you all the luck in the world.

itsthelittlethings

There are lots of courses on this platform. This would be a great one to start with

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/digital-computing/hybrid-working-skills-digital-transformation/content-section-0?active-tab=description-tab

You may find you get questions about GDPR in job interviews (they often seem to ask about this now and it can catch people out of you are not prepared).

If you do courses and they are really relevant - stick them on your CV!

Vectis

Pec123 said: My story is tragic: This is my perspective:

How the services have let my Autistic son and my family down. He was diagnosed at 2 but denied a statement to go to a special school. We paid for a private Autistic nursery where he did well before he joined state school at Reception. Parents and children in the local school complained that he was in the school to the Headmistress.  However, my son was badly hurt by the children in the school one day, of which he still has the scar on the back of his head and of course none of the people looking after him saw anything. He was still crying when I got there and told to watch for concussion for the next 24hours. He was 5! I knew I had to get him out of there for his own safety. It was only when I realised with the help of a support group that my son's academic levels were sufficiently behind to take the council to tribunal which was their default setting with everybody, as they believed not everybody would go through with it. I took the council to tribunal who conceded which meant he could go to a special school but not an Autistic one as we wanted. He developed a compulsion for washing vehicles and many other behavioural challenges and somehow got into a secure compound at a mail depot just to wash the vehicles. His behaviour was always challenging but I was denied respite because all little children are challenging! He did not do well academically. The school did not give us any meaningful information about how our son was doing even after a SAR request.  After the pandemic we came across a behaviour report accidently mentioned by the staff (who also let me know I could have 4hrs of respite). This report was not to improve his behaviour but to get him expelled. In there it detailed the violent life he was exposed to of which we had no idea and he had started to self harm which shows how badly his needs were not met. I have photographs of the injuries my son received, I believe from restraining of which the Safeguarding team did not investigate. We did get a little help eventually regarding his challenging behaviour but not anywhere near what he needed and then discharged. Again I tried to get him to an Autistic school where people would understand him and told that he could go on to education until he was 25 with an EHCP. However as he was changing provision it was denied at Tribunal. His compulsion for car washing grew worse and he started to drop out of education so that he could spend his days washing vehicles. There was no chance he was going to continue until 25. He did Lifeskills at college and left with level 2 in English and Maths around age 8. 

 His need to wash cars became so bad that he threatened people over washing cars and was eventually arrested after his 18th birthday. I cried for 5 hours the next day I thought my life was going to end. Social services have always treated me and my family as though we had done something criminal even though they were from the disability team. Going through the legal process for Supported Living was very frightening especially signing blank documents for the Court of Protection.  He has been taken far away from the family home where he is being looked after 24/7 in a Deprivation Of Liberty Home where although the Care Act 2014 said we had a choice we did not. Moreover, we managed to get him to the adult mental health team who additionally diagnosed him with ADHD which means he can be medicated for his condition. We were told we should have been introduced to a Behaviour team years ago and he has just started their program. I am broken because if we were given the help we needed years ago in a proactive way maybe he would not be in Supported Living now and on benefits. As his appointee I applied for Universal Credit and he has been declared Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA). Why was my son and family denied the help we needed in terms of behaviour support, diagnoses, education, medication and only helped in a reactive way. It is going to cost the government now for the rest of his life. I appreciate things could have been much worse if I had not looked after him diligently and he could be in prison as many of them are. There is more I would like to tell you but do not wish risk harm.

Sorry, I really couldn't read all that and I'm not entirely sure anyway how it's related to you applying for jobs?

Please tell me you don't get into all this when invited for interviews? I'm not being rude, but just not sure how that much detail is relevant to applying for a job.

Have you thought about straightforward Teaching Assistant roles, not necessarily SEN? My wife switched careers late in her career life and trained for and became a Teaching Assistant. As far as I recall, the referees were required to be professional people and not necessarily known through your profession. To clarify, you could get a reference from a doctor or a teacher because they're professionals, even though you don't work with them professionally. I've personally given references for people I haven't worked with, but who I have known for some time, and that was because I was working in what was considered a profession. I'm just saying you might be reading the requirements wrong.