Guidance For Professionals Who Want To Go Back To School
It will soon be back to school season, but that doesn’t mean that only the kids will be going back to school. Demands on you as an employee can be increasing, as well as satisfaction in your job decreasing. Which is why increasing your skills can be so important in your career, whether you plan to stay where you are or plan to make a change. The stats are showing that more and more of us are returning to school to further our education and qualifications, with over a quarter of graduates being aged over 25, and over 22% being aged over 30. So, of course, going back to school is a personal choice. But the statistics are showing us that it is a choice that more and more professionals are doing in order to get the career that they want.
If you are thinking of a career change, or have thought about it and more skills or qualifications are the only way for you to progress, then how do you go about getting back into training and education? Here are some things to be thinking about.
Talk To Your Line Manager
If you are thinking about moving on or getting back into education, then it can be worth speaking to your line manager first. There can be some advice they can offer in terms of the courses to choose, and there may even be an option to reduce your working hours to part time, so you can study the rest of the time.
Talk To Colleagues
Have any colleagues gone back to school that you could talk to about the process? This can give you some good insight, as well as ideas of how to make it work. It could also be worth speaking to those that have done the course that you want to, such as an RNBSN online course, for example. If they’ve done it, they could advise on what they thought of it and the good and bad parts about it.
Check Course Syllabus
Not all degree courses or further education courses are created equal. So it really does help to look into the course in detail, to check you will be learning exactly what you thought you would and what will be relevant to your degree. Check online, visit the school if you won’t be studying online, and speak to admissions tutors and advisors too. If you have questions about the course, make sure that they are asked.
Get Help
There is no doubt that studying alongside everything else that you have to do is going to be a difficult transition. So if you have family commitments and work commitments, make sure that you are getting the help that you need, in order to do all that you need to do, without burnout.
Develop a Network
If you’re going to be studying online, then this will be more difficult. But you can develop a support network if you are visiting school in person. Share ideas, talk through assignments, and develop a supportive network. Don’t skip the social side of school.
[Editor’s note: This post is from one of our trusted partners.]
