It doesn’t matter whether you are in your 20’s, 40’s or 60’s, you can reach a point where you think it is time for a change – a big change. Not just going from working for one company in an industry to working for another but completely changing your industry and retraining to do something different. It is a big step and often involves some form of education, be it online courses or attending night classes. Sometimes you may even go back into education full time if your situation allows. So what jobs are in demand at the moment to help you decide where to focus?
Helping people
For many people, when they make the decision to retrain, they want to focus on something that is of interest to them. This might mean a specific career path or it might mean looking for jobs that allow you to fulfil a person aim – for example, helping people.
Two big in demand jobs that require varying levels of retraining are registered nurses and home health aides. There are thousands of openings for registered nurses currently around the country with states such as California, Texas and Florida in the most need. The average salary pays around $67,000 and you will need at least an Associate’s Degree in Nursing to become a registered nurse.
Being a home help aide is a lower paid job with an average salary of around $21,000 but there is also a lot less training involved. The role involves helping people in their homes who are sick, elderly or disabled and doing tasks such as dressing, bathing and making sure they are safe. Most training is done on the job, usually by a registered nurse and the person is signed off as competent before taking the role.
Business jobs
One of the most popular jobs to retrain is in the area of business administration. As more and more people start their own business, there is an ever-growing demand for skilled and qualified people to work within these companies. Therefore, one great option for retraining is to look at online Business Administration courses.
BA courses are a terrific starting point for any number of roles and a good quality course will cover broad topics including accounting, finance, organizational behavior, human resources and marketing. It will train people to be able to oversee the day to day running of a business and also develop strategies to help improve and grow the company. It teaches people about studying economic and market trends while also instilling a strong sense of business ethics.
People with this type of qualification have gone on to roles as diverse as running an international jewelry and handbag company, managing a PR agency and working as a career coach. It is an ideal retraining option that allows you to then further specialize depending on your interests.
IT related roles
The other big growth area is in IT related roles. As the internet and computers become an integral part of our lives, more and more people are required to create, maintain and upgrade this equipment and software. This has led to a host of jobs that simply didn’t exist ten years ago.
One example is a data scientist. These are the people who take all the data that the internet now provides to a business and works with it using analytics programs and statistical methods to help set goals, view progress of a project or to create data-driven solutions for challenges. These are the people that turn all that mountain of data into a clear picture that non-statisticians can understand.
Software engineers are already much in demand and experts said that this demand will have grown some 19% by 2024. Software is crucial for everything to run – a computer need software to do anything, from turning on to reading emails to viewing social media. Not only do software engineers need to create the software but they are also responsible for maintaining it and dealing with problems when they occur.
Personal choice
Deciding that you want to retrain and where you want to focus your efforts is a very personal choice. You can look at what you want to do with your life, such as helping people or perhaps line up a career path that excites you, maybe running your own business eventually. Whatever the path is, by getting the right training, you can be better placed to get the role or opportunity you desire.