Not Retiring: Career Transition is For Everyone

Chances to try something new should be available to people throughout their career.

Mandy Garner

Mandy Garner is a freelance journalist and editor. She was the former managing editor of WM People and is a communications officer at the University of Cambridge. She has experience working in a range of roles, including senior broadcast journalist at the BBC, former features editor of Times Higher Education and researcher for the writers organisation International PEN.

A report out this week from Teach First focused on making the profession more flexible in order to attract younger people. It recommended, for instance, secondments to other sectors. But it's not just young people who might want greater flexibility in their workplace, whatever that might mean for them, and opportunities to take time out and try other options.

Trying New Things

As we live - and work - longer, we need to be open to trying new things. Surveys continuously show that older people are keen to learn new things. Many complain of being stuck in a rut or being undervalued. It can be difficult to move if you have additional responsibilities, such as caring for elderly parents or paying for university bills, but midlife is a time of great turbulence too, just as early parenthood or teenage-dom is.

Often it is a time of personal change - divorce, health issues, caring issues, bereavement, menopause, redundancy, grappling with your own mortality and more. There is no shortage of things going on and changing jobs or careers can either be necessary, as in the case of redundancy, or a welcome shift from a career you may have fallen into and stayed with just because it was easier when the kids were young.

But you can change career at any time, if the opportunities are there. There is no reason secondments couldn't work for older workers, just as apprenticeships have been enthusiastically embraced by some.

Moving Into A Tech Career

For example Kimberley Cook from codebar, a charity which offers free one-to-one coaching for those looking to get into coding, outlined at a recent webinar how they are looking to help underrepresented groups into a tech career. Cook mentioned women, LGBTQ+ and non-binary people and those from ethnic minorities, but said the organisation is very flexible about who it helps. The older age groups are surely underrepresented in tech roles and these are often the roles that are better paid. There's no reason why they couldn't switch to coding.

It's never too late to start over and there's more advice and information out there to help than you might think. Employers should also take note. We're all learners now.

This article was first published on workingmums.co.uk, who's assets were acquired by 55/Redefined in 2024.

Additional Resources

Jobs/Redefined Jobs board: Find your next new career with an age-inclusive employer on our jobs board
Life/Redefined Purpose Finder: Not sure what your next step should be? Check out our purpose finder.
Upskill, Change Careers or Start a Business?: Take this personality test to figure out what your next step should be now you’re over 50