Thinking of retraining?

Hayley Goucher separated from her partner when her daughter was two and admits to feeling extremely anxious about what she was going to do with her life and how she would provide for the family.

At the time she was working at a local bingo hall. In 2017 she graduated in law from the University of Kent and is on her way to qualifying as a solicitor. Studying part time while working, she says retraining has transformed her life and her and her daughter’s future. “It really has changed my life and me as a person. It opens up so many doors,” she says.

Hayley is one of many mums who consider retraining after having children. workingmums.co.uk’s annual survey of nearly 2,500 mums found 67% of women were interested in retraining and that 20% have retrained in the last 12 months. Some 77% said they would be more likely to retrain if courses were more flexible.

A recent workingmums.co.uk survey specifically on retraining found that, although the top reason given for retraining was changed values (35 per cent), other popular reasons were that respondents were looking for a career change (28 per cent) or were fed up with their job (27 per cent).

Long hours, inflexible working in their current job and lack of career progression were also mentioned.

The most popular time for seeking retraining was when respondents’ children had started school, a quarter said this was what prompted them to retrain. Other reasons included marital breakdown, redundancy and pregnancy.

Flexible online courses

In response to the demand, workingmums.co.uk has launched a new resource for those seeking flexible courses that they can do any time from anywhere. The courses listing page is a partnership with e-Careers, a leading eLearning provider, and offers courses which lead to professional qualifications or skills development. The courses cover a range of different sectors, from accountancy and coding to project management, digital marketing and childcare. You can check them out here.

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