Please help me with career ideas. I feel lost Watch

Hi all,

I feel a bit lost with work at the minute.

I have been a teacher for 10 years, and now work with young people who have been convicted or at risk of anti-social behaviour.

I am starting an MA in Crime and Justice in September with Open Uni.

I have had 4 children and have devoted much of the last 13 years to them. My last child starts school next year, and I really want to get back on a good career path.

A huge aim of mine was to do an MA in Social Work. But I have missed the boat and would struggle to fund another 2 years at uni with 4 children. This is why I am starting my MA with Open Uni.
I looked into the Step up to Social Work programme, but missed the last cohort - unless they do it again in a few years.

I like the idea of being a probation officer also. Would my MA Crime & Justice help me on to the PQiP?

I would love to join the police, but my long term health problems would deny me entry.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

My impression from your posts is you do indeed seem a bit lost, dead end and in a rut. Im not overwhelmed by your enthusiasm for the OU course either.

If your aim was to be a social worker and the step into social work was the key, hen do that. Cant see the point in doing anything else. Im not sure if the MA adds anything significantly., but you can ask around.

You only get one life so make some space for your life and what you want. All very Shirley Valentine.

Contact the Do E tomorrow and at least confirm the status of step onto socialwork. From what i read they do it every 2 years and there was no indication it had ended so you need confirmation either way.

If it runs in 2020, then your focus needs to be getting everything in place to ensure you are accepted in 2019. It will go faster than you think.

At the same time you can look into probation officer of its really you.

If you rally wanted sounds like you could start down that line now.

https://nationalcareersservice.direc...bation-officer

Hi,
I found a book that helped me a lot with my career questions. It's a short one but really inspiring. I think it will help in your situation. It's on amazon.co.uk and is called The Secrets Your Professors Won't Tell You: About Your Career Choice. The author is Liliya Lyubman. Hope it helps. Good luck with your decision!

If you want to continue to work with youth, I think a better route would be to study to be a youth worker. I don’t think the MA in Crime and Justice will be useful to you in the long run unless you want to work in law enforcement. Although if you want to work as a probation officer, it could help. However, if you become a probation officer, you won’t be working with youth in the same capacity as a youth or social worker. If you want to work WITH youth, I don’t think the MA or the probation officer route is the way.

I have only looked into the youth worker job description briefly. Although similar, it seems to be a separate program than the social work degree. If you are only interested in working with youth, perhaps you should look into youth worker degrees. If you go into social work, you would have to learn how to work with adults and families, too, which is more than you need. There are part-time jobs in youth work. Perhaps, you can start there to see if you like it. If there is nothing near you that offers part-time work, see if there are any volunteer opportunities.

I was also looking into working with youth, but it didn’t work out for me. Before I left the path, I took an online course. It’s very short (4 weeks). It’s called Trauma-Informed Care for Professionals Working with Youth. It’s an introductory course but it helps you to understand the youth you work with. If you plan on continuing to work with at-risk youth, I recommend it. It’s $120. There is very little work involved and you go at your own pace. The course instructor has a Ph.D and he has been working with at-risk youth for awhile in the US. Here's the link for the course: http://centerforadolescentstudies.co...informed-care/

Hope this helps

I know this was posted a while ago but have you thought about becoming a youth offending team officer. This is what I want to do. If your situation has not changed and still doing the ma and wanting to work with young people it might be worth a look at.