Hi, just really need some career guidance. I am a single sahm, and I desperately want to get back into the workforce, but I am torn about what to do for a career. I was a cleaner before my daughter came along, but that is not something I want to go back to, not only because my body couldn't handle the rigours of the job, but because I want something better for myself and my daughter.
I am in my early forties, yep, a late bloomer in the career department, and I am so torn between cert iii in early childhood and cert iii in education support. I love the little ones, but I am scared that because my daughter would have to go into daycare herself during school holidays. And then there is the worry that if I chose teacher's aide I would have trouble not only finding a job in that field, but the lack of fulltime positions.
Please help!!!
Confusion about a new career path
Confusion about a new career path
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Life Lessons, Sisterhood Stories, Parenthood Guilt
2 Replies
I have thought about being a teachers aide as well, but I know that they can go for long periods of not having work and that could be very stressful for you being a single parent. Purely from what you have written here, and without knowing you I would say early childhood, as they have great hours (no weekends) and there is the possibility of going full time within a daycare or preschool. Also if you were able to get work at a preschool (and many offer traineeships) There would be no work in the holidays, although if you were casual there would be no pay, you would have to be working full time. Goodluck with it.
Oh God, I can so relate. Last year my job agency paid for me to do a cert 3 in early childcare because I thought I wanted to work with children. I have two school aged children, so the hours didn't suit me, so I changed to cert 3 in education support so I could work with in the school hours, but I found I just couldn't get into it. I left that course and enrolled in Tafe paying myself and enrolling in a Cert 3 in Information and Cultural studies but the lack of finances has left me contemplating my future again. I used to work in a library before having children, so naturally I thought going back to what I knew would be beneficial but, having no qualifications on paper it is hard to get employment. So I am off to TAFE tomorrow to try and transfer to another course, hopefully Cert 3 in Retail Operations. The workforce is competitive in any industry, but Retail is quite large, and I would rather start working sooner than later, so Retail is the way to go for me at the moment I think. I am 37 and still don't know what to do...I am a late bloomer too. I really hope you can decide what you want to do, and get employment in your chosen field.