Be all that you can be

There are all kinds of reasons why you might want to go to university later in life, either for a second degree or to pursue your first, and it isn’t as hard to get there as you might imagine.

There are some difficulties of course, especially if you have a family to take care of, but these are by no means insurmountable. Indeed many people return to university later in life ( I did!), and in fact the vast majority of universities cater for mature students specifically.

There are generally two reasons why people want to take up a university degree as matures students: to change their careers/improve their employability or just for the love of studying a particular topic. If you are motivated by a specific career objective make sure you get as much accurate and up-to-date information about the qualifications and skills before you pick a university course. It would be a nightmare to get onto a course only to find out that it isn’t the right one for you.

Careers and job centres are good sources of advice but doing your own research is probably advisable too. Be sure to look online at the career you are interested to find out any skill-sets or qualifications that might be vital/useful. Even just chatting online with people already employed in your dream career can provide all kinds of useful insights.

Next, decide what method of formal education would suit you best: full-time, part-time and by distance learning.

Of course the method you settle for will depend largely upon your personal circumstances (like whether you have family; whether you’re mobile and so on), and of course on how much time you have available around other work commitments. You should also consider what sort of student you are. For instance, if you find it difficult to motivate yourself to study by yourself, perhaps attending classes would be a good idea?

If you are at home looking after young children, distance learning might be most useful for you, allowing you to timetable your studies around meal and bedtimes. Conversely, if you have family (or whomever) happy to look after your children on a regular basis, perhaps going out to daily classes at a nearby college or university would be most beneficial.

Only you know your circumstances, so think careful before committing any large amounts of money or time to a prospective course.

If you want to continue formal learning but have a child or children it may feel to you that there is no-one there to help you broaden your horizons while still raising happy and healthy offspring.

In the absence of family or a partner who can look after children in your absence, there are several childcare options available, registered with Ofsted. This guarantees that the care being offered has been inspected by experts to make sure that it is safe and of a good quality. As your child grows from a baby to toddler he or she will need different things from a carer and so you might want to use a variety of childcare providers if you are studying for a number of years.

Where a babysitter generally takes care of children in your own home, qualified childminders tend to look after your child at their own homes. All such childminders have been registered with Ofsted and it isn’t a good idea to let anyone else look after your child in this manner unless you know them very well and can trust them. Childminders are a good option for you if you want your child to be cared for in a home environment with other children, possibly of different ages.

As your child gets older there are plenty of good crèches and nurseries that he or she could attend, and some educational establishments actually have them on site, so that might be a consideration when choosing colleges or whatever.

For 16 to 19 year olds there are a wide range of courses and training available to you, on both full and part time bases and most education providers like schools and colleges, either state or privately run, can offer interesting and flexible courses for most needs.

Depending on the type of qualification being sought and whether the course is full time or part time, available courses can be anything from just a few weeks long to several years, which if you have a child means that you can invariably spend more time with it rather (although you will be expected to attend a certain amount of hours at the establishment that is hosting/teaching your course).

Generally speaking it is good to attend classes as they give you both the support and impetus to continue, where working from home can prove difficult. If you are holding down a job or looking after children, then it is often possible to find evening classes for when you return from work or for when someone else becomes available to look after the children.

If you are unsure as to what sort of course you would like to take up, you can contact a Connexions advisor for help, even just browse the Connexions Direct learning homepage for ideas.

This site not only offers advice and ideas for further education and learning, but also for childcare options, jobs, housing, relationships, your legal rights and lots more useful information.

If you have had to leave full-time education because of the arrival of a new baby it is not impossible to return to education if you want to. Indeed it is often a good idea to do so.

Education and qualification can help both you and your child by helping you develop new skills, gain some qualifications and improve your employability. It will also get you out of the house regularly, improve your confidence and social skills and even find you new friends.

However, you may be unsure about leaving your child in someone else’s care while you are out studying – indeed it’s a big step for every parent to let someone else look after their children.

It’s important to remember that there is help available and there is no great pressure on you to rush back into education before you feel ready. Take the time to look around at the options available to you, both in terms of classes and childcare provision and make the right decision for you.

If you are under 16 years old you are still of school age and chances are that you will be encouraged by various agencies to stay within the school system until you complete your GCSE’s. However you won’t be forced and there are other options available to you.

Home tuition is an option, but this can be expensive and you have to be able to discipline yourself to work from home – trickier than you might imagine when there is TV, internet, family and a fridge to distract you! Also home tuition can be expensive, unless you happen to have a family member with a university degree who is willing to supervise your studying, then he or she may be able to act as your official tutor. Whatever the case, if you work from home you will have to be able to set aside time to study and complete coursework on time.

If you have been consistently unable to finish coursework on time for your exams and/or do not wish to sit your GCSE’s, then it might be possible for you to attend other accredited courses that teach life skills, numeracy, literacy and basic IT skills.

For details browse through the government homepage for local authorities: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/localauthorities/index.cfm?action=home

Barring an untimely death or complete incapacitation it is never too late to change your life for the better – and even if you are incapacitated, there’s almost always a possibility that you can do something.

Generally speaking, if you are dissatisfied with your current job there is always the possibility that you can change it to something that better fits your interests and skills. However, if you don’t have the experience of skill set to get the job you want, what can you do?

The questions you have to ask yourself are:

- Are you dissatisfied with your current job/ living circumstance or level of education?
- Are you interested in learning or doing something new?
- What is preventing you from doing so?
- What can you do about it?

In our first few article we are going to look at returning to education – whether that’s going back to school after dropping out or leaving to have a child, returning to university as a mature student or taking up a course of training to increase your knowledge base or skill set for a new job.

Although any of these can be tricky, especially if you have dependents like children, a disabled family member or elderly parents, there are all sorts of ways to lessen the impact of your intended return to study upon your family and other responsibilities.

Next time we will look at returning to school or training if you are a teenager with a child.