How Can Becoming a Mature Student Help with a Career Change?
Are you considering re-entering education as a mature student but unsure of the benefits you might obtain? We’ve got some tips on how becoming a mature student can help with your career change.
When thinking about students, most people envisage the transition from teenage years to early adulthood, of partying and late nights in the library. However, there is a portion of students who are choosing to undertake studies later in life.
Becoming a mature student can elevate your CV beyond its previous iteration. Plus, adding a degree to your experience means that in many cases, you can progress further in your career, or even change your career path entirely.
1. Becoming a mature student will change your perspective
Depending on your age, it might have been a long time since you were in formal education. This can present itself as a challenge for many people. But the good thing about challenges is that they help you to change perspectives and adapt to new information.
The proof of the ability to be flexible and have attitudes that transition based on experience is a key career skill. Small changes in your perspective can make you view many different things in a new light. When you are introduced to and overcome different challenges, it gives you the confidence to tackle greater challenges. Small successes promote the desire to achieve greater success.
2. Education later in life gives you the chance to learn new skills
Over the past 20 to 30 years, there has been a huge change in what are considered to be ‘desirable skills’. For example, since the advent of the World Wide Web in 1989, there is exponential growth in the importance of computer literacy. As a mature student, you may or may not be as IT savvy as the younger people on the course. But you will have the opportunity to use computers for your academic research writing.
If you have never studied within higher education before, then you will learn the importance of effectively conducting your own research. You will also more than likely be required at times to work as part of a team and to deliver presentations in front of an audience. Helping you to develop more ‘desirable skills’.
3. Add your mature studies to your CV
Having a new degree will allow you to add to your CV, and you will be able to list the new skills that you have learnt and mastered throughout the duration of the course. What is also important to remember is that you will have made new contacts, namely your lecturers, who can provide you with fresh references regarding your academic performance. Good references from lecturers are always desirable, and proving the adage ‘you can’t teach old dogs new tricks’ wrong goes a long way to letting people know that you’re hard working and versatile.
4. Change your career path entirely
Adding a degree, or indeed a second degree, to your CV has the potential to help move you from one profession to another. One writer claimed that during their degree, they developed a new understanding of what it was they wanted to be doing. Thankfully, by the end of the course their qualification was an official recognition of the skills they needed to make the transition.
Many mature students undertake degrees in order to retrain for vocational roles, such as teachers or nurses. Therefore, taking a step in the direction of your desired career can start with gaining a new qualification.
Undertaking a degree as a mature student might not have been something that you have considered before. But it can be an interesting and progressive way of changing your personal circumstances. There are many different services that provide help and financial advice for mature students looking for some assistance. If studying later on in life is something you’re considering, it’s a good idea to do a bit of research in this area as well. Good luck.