No Qualifications, low paid jobs - what should I do?

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Hi all,

I'm 35 years old, married with 2 childen. The youngest is going to school in September and I'm trying to decide my options.
I didn't work for approx 7 years while my oldest was growing up. Since then I've worked in various jobs, mainly cleaning/catering/caring. I've also worked in an office as a secretary (did a secretarial course way back in the early 90's) for approx 2 years.
At present I am working as a catering assistant, part time, but it is not enough hours/money.

My problem is that I would like to go back to work full time once youngest starts school, but I dont have the qualifications to apply for any of the jobs I see in the paper. Every single thing I look at seems to have 'minimum experience of 1/2 years'. Ideally I would like to work in an office as a secretary or administrator. Things seem to have changed hugely in that domain in the last few years, and now a secretary/office person usually has to do some accounts + payroll also, which I have never done.

What should I do? Should I try and get on to a Fas training course + see where that leads me? I suppose I'd just have to make do on the allowance from them. Or what are my other options?

Any ideas/experiences welcome, I'm starting to get really down about this. Is there any office type job that would train me up on the job?

thanks.
 
What is you main question - how to get more fulfilling work or how to get more money? Or both? What sort of work would you ideally like to do? Do you have any specific interests and skills that might be applicable to some specific form of employment (e.g. this would include a wide range of stuff like being very organised, being a lateral thinker, having a capacity for repetitive work, liking to work alone or in a group, better dealing with nitty gritty issues or with higher level issues etc.). This should inform your choice of course or strategy for getting a job. Have you considered getting career advice (do FAS provide this sort of service?) and/or reading a few books on how to reskill and change jobs (your library may have some or may be able to obtain them for you if money is tight)?
 
Thanks Clubman. I would ideally like to work in an office, preferably a Mon-Fr 9 - 6 job. Money is important, but so is doing a job I like so I suppose the answer to that is both are necessary. I am very organised (particularly with money, I've had to be), good level of education up to leaving cert. I am actually going to go in to Fas tomorrow morning and see what advice they can give me. Does anyone know what the criteria is to get on to a course with Fas? ie do you have to be out of work with a certain length or time? I work approx 10 - 15 hours a week at the moment.
Thanks again, I will let you know how I get on. If Fas doesn't come up with anything then I'm going to keep looking to see if there are any ads that state 'training will be provided', but I wont hold out much hope for that.
 
Start Temping. !!!Sign up with any of the secretarial agencies that are in your area. Believe me its a great way to polish up your skills, and gain experience. You would be surprised the skills you pick up after say 6 months of temping, something that a course will never teach you.
Also its moves your Cv in the right direction.
Best of luck :)
 
If you have been out of the workforce for a while be careful to draw up a suitable skills CV rather than simply saying what you did years ago in terms or work/courses (although by all means mention this info too). For example, raising kids/running a home involves a lot of management skills that are just as applicable to the work environment (no smart remarks please! ;)) and it might be an idea to enumerate these and outline how you could apply these to helping an employer meet their objectives. As ever you should have a general all encompassing CV (e.g. for agencies or whatever) but also tune your CV specifically for potential employers/job opportunities. There are loads of resources online for guidance on this sort of stuff. Try some of the Irish employment agencies for a start. As far as I know, more and more, employers are taking on more mature employees and those who have been out of the workforce for a while so I'm sure that you should be able to find something that can be mutually beneficial to you and the employer once you can sell yourself appropriately to them. Good luck!
 
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