Certification at 58 to get work?

jobhunter50

I'm 58 and have not worked for the past few months after having sold a small shop that I owned and ran for 11 years in the Dublin area. I am thinking about possibly getting some computer qualifications and certifications with a view to looking for work in this area possibly in telephone technical support, maintenance or network admin. I have no experience or contacts in this area but have a strong interest in computing and business and from looking at job sites and recruitment agency websites, computing seems like one area where there is little shortage of work.
I have an honours degree from about 15 years ago in German and History which I did at night though I've never made any use of it. I also have pretty good Italian. I did all the Vat and bookkeeping for the business and have ECDL Basic & Advanced. I am not desperate for work and could afford to spend a year training or working for nothing in exchange for learning on the job. I was thinking about some of the courses like CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network, Microsoft Exchange Server etc., Cisco, Web Design/Multimedia, Java Programming, Microsoft .Net etc. and Microsoft MOS - probably a pretty eclectic collection to those of you who know about these things. FAS have a load of these online and there are lots of other places like CMIT, IACT etc to do them, too. NCI have a course starting in Feb in 'Web Technologies' which looks interesting and pretty intensive - 14 weeks 3 nights a week for €2590. GCD & DBS have a couple of 10-week courses at around €600. UL have a graduate conversion course for people changing from their degree subjects to computing though obviously not aimed at someone like me.

What I'd really appreciate is some advice about the possibility of getting work after completing some of these or would I do better to try my hand at plumbing or even being a TD. It's less the courses' cost, more the waste of time and resources if there is little or no chance of it paying off down the road given my age and total lack of knowledge and experience. And maybe many of these are intended for people already working in these areas. I am quite prepared to be flexible and would not have huge expectations re work/conditions at least for a couple of years. After running a shop for years, mostly seven days a week, I can probably put up with a lot. My apologies for the long post but I just wanted to ensure a clear view of my situation.

Static M.e.

I don't know you or your situation but I will try to be as honest as I can here.

What I'd really appreciate is some advice about the possibility of getting work after completing some of these or would I do better to try my hand at plumbing or even being a TD. It's less the courses' cost, more the waste of time and resources if there is little or no chance of it paying off down the road given my age and total lack of knowledge and experience. And maybe many of these are intended for people already working in these areas. I am quite prepared to be flexible and would not have huge expectations re work/conditions at least for a couple of years. After running a shop for years, mostly seven days a week, I can probably put up with a lot.

IF you were just learning for the sake of learning that I would be all up for it. However, if you need to earning a steady income after a couple of years from it then I'm reluctant to say go for it.

Problem you will face is that in 2 to 3 years time, and you are looking for a Job you will be going up against graduates straight out of college who work for cheap, have the same or more experience and who I can probably boss around more. - Just being honest here.

Besides all of which, I really don't think you are playing to your strengths. You run a shop for 11 years!! You must have a bundle of experience and skills that maybe you do or don't know about. I think you should be playing to these instead with maybe a slant towards IT but using your experiences as the main thrust.

I did all the Vat and bookkeeping for the business

Can you not skill up in this area? Perhaps doing a Masters of Management or a course in bookkeeping?

You seem to be a very hard worker and I applaud the fact that you are willing to try something new from scratch and give it your all. However, my advice would be for you to play more to your current experience and leverage it to get a job though re-skilling in a related area.


However, if you do decide to go down the IT road you need to pick one area of IT and concentrate on that alone.

rolion

jobhunter50 wrote: »

I'm 58 ... NCI have a course starting in Feb in 'Web Technologies' which looks interesting and pretty intensive - 14 weeks 3 nights a week for €2590. GCD & DBS have a couple of 10-week courses at around €600

I will go for web design,programming,ecommerce,support,managing & updating the site(s)...
The IT goes slowly slowly "all online" due to strong push of the cloud.Also,having sales experience and people management exposure you can have your own web design / programming 'shop' in 1-2 years time !

There are no jobs and positions in support...and if they are ,someone who has no fcuking clue about networks can do it asking around online and ... take your contract/project/job !

Also,at 58...try focusing on a single technology as is easier,these things keeps changing every year so,most of the certifications must be renewed every 2-3 years and so on...

Goodluck...

mickman

rolion wrote: »

I will go for web design,programming,ecommerce,support,managing & updating the site(s)...
The IT goes slowly slowly "all online" due to strong push of the cloud.Also,having sales experience and people management exposure you can have your own web design / programming 'shop' in 1-2 years time !

There are no jobs and positions in support...and if they are ,someone who has no fcuking clue about networks can do it asking around online and ... take your contract/project/job !

Also,at 58...try focusing on a single technology as is easier,these things keeps changing every year so,most of the certifications must be renewed every 2-3 years and so on...

Goodluck...

"The IT goes slowly slowly "all online" due to strong push of the cloud." ??????????

"There are no jobs and positions in support." - not true, for qualified people with good experience there is work

Static M.e.

@jobhunter50

Just rethinking my original comment.

If you do decide to down the IT path, post back here often and I'll be happy to provide you with any knowledge or exam tips that I have. I obviously love IT and I'm more than happy to help anyone who has a genuine desire to learn.

Static M.e.

The Higher Education Authority is implementing BlueBrick.ie as the central portal for its 'Springboard' initiative. This is part of the first phase of a new €20m multi-annual fund providing access to higher education and training opportunities to support unemployed people.

Springboard allows unemployed people to maximise their employment opportunities by learning new skills or improving their existing skills, by accessing part-time flexible higher education and training opportunities.

--- Might be worth checking out

jobhunter50

Thanks for the replies especially the one from Static M.e. It’s pretty depressing that nobody is telling me that I have any real prospect of getting work from any of the courses proposed either from the replies themselves or the 270 readers of the post who didn’t think it worth a post to encourage my doing one. I didn’t intend doing all the courses listed, just trying a few and seeing how I got on and using them to suss out my abilities/prospects from other students, teachers etc. as well as the best courses to be taking.
Static’s right that I have other options and I’m not complaining too much as I also have money and time enough – at least at the moment! – to explore a few options.
My initial idea on this came from four things: I really like this area; I think I can hack the study as I’ve always been managed to in the past; the seeming availability of work in this area – Jobs.ie lists about 500 vacancies for IT, more than any other domain except Sales/Marketing, many of which are commission-only; many jobs are bilingual in the IT area and with some brushing up I would be ok in German or Italian. I also remember Karlin Lillington’s Irish Times article – disputed, I know – about staff shortages in IT despite the recession.
Big reservation, obviously was my age and it begins to look as if it might be fatal. Honesty may be the best policy, but the truth is the truth hurts!
I’m going to do a Web Design course from next week – it’s only 10 evenings in a PLC – but we’ll see what it brings and it’s not very expensive. This Is the link for the NCI course on Web Technologies, which I’ve put off at least for the moment until I’m clearer about my prospects.

http://www.ncirl.ie/Programmes_Courses/Part-time-Courses/Certificate-in-Web-Technologies-WEBTECHNCI2

Static, thanks for the link to bluebrick.ie which is a great summary of available courses. I’d looked at the IT, Tallaght Cert in Web Design, Development & Maintenance and might have done it if you didn’t need ‘Fundamentals of Software Development’ to qualify.

Static M.e.

If you do the Web Design course, that should be all the Fundamentals you need really. Talk to the course director.

Also once you start getting into Web Design you will start using some expensive software packages. Don't purchase any until you either start college or a friend is starting college. Students get massive discounts! To begin with just start using trial packages they should give you all the bits you need.