A Granny with 15 years running a business- Where does she start?

OK, I've asked for myself, now about my mother.

My mother's been doing books all her working life. She never had any qualification to back it up however. After 15 years doing the books in a business both she and my Dad set up, they sold on and paid off the mortgage. Now, 2 years later, my Mam is back in the workforce, but she's doing an entry-level job with little progression prospects.

After my own look into becoming a trainee accountant, I suggested the idea to her. I now have a few questions:

-While they help anyways, will her years running a business actually qualify her to skip certain exams?

-At mid-50s, is it too late to begin training?

-Would she be able to get a training contract?

-She far prefers the handwriting way of doing things. Will that greatly hinder her in this technological age?

capall

To be honest I don't think it would be worth it,unless she has a real passion to pursue an academic course.
Could she not advertise to just do bookkeeping for small businesses?
You don't need a full accountancy qualification for this ,most of what you do in the accountancy exams is far removed from what you need to know for maintaining a set of accounting books. She should consider learning to use an accountancy package like sage etc which small businesses use.
Or look into doing the tax technician course which would be alot more achievable and would fit in with providing a book keeping service ie tax compliance