Would you apply for college? (University)

[Ausmumof3]

Back story. DH career changed a few years back meaning a big income drop and I had to go back to work. His income has increased gradually and this year he has launched a business pretty successfully meaning money pressure isn’t as bad as it was. I currently tutor MSL English and Maths (think OG for dyslexia - a little different but similar). I work for someone else and earn a similar hourly rate to an ESO. Possibly a little higher but sometimes less consistent. Due to work hours and lack of social opportunity DD went to high school this year. She has adjusted pretty well with a few ups and downs. It’s a small private Christian school - there are some minor issues but educationally and friendship wise it seems good. DS (currently y7) has started to express interest in going. It will be difficult for me to homeschool him next year and continue working as oldest won’t be home anymore in the day. He is physically small and I don’t think would be confident alone during the day. (Keep in mind we are rural so no neighbours for emergencies, and different hazards). However he is more academic, more nerdy and generally less resilient than DD and I think will have more issues adjusting to school. He does have a couple of friends there already but they are more “cool kids” and I can see those friendships not working in a school setting. 
 

I have been thinking about possibly studying speech therapy to take what I’m doing already to the next level.  There’s a few ups and downs to this. I would like to have some kind of degree behind me (I do have Ed Support but I’d prefer not to work in that). It is related to what I do already. Part of the degree is linguistics which fascinates me. Downsides though are the pay doesn’t seem to be significantly more than I currently earn - it’s quite low for the level of study required. I would definitely need to stop masking for that kind of work. And I actually prefer working in literacy than speech as that’s more my passion. Plus I’ll have a hecs debt to pay back. DH’s business is getting really busy and I need to do some of the book work for him (though we could pay someone else if needed).

What would you do? Apply now knowing you can defer two years? Wait and see if DS actually transitions well into school and then apply the year after. Just keep working my current job? (I do like what I do and feel confident but it’s mostly uni students and it’s not really going anywhere).  Cut back hours and try to refocus on homeschooling?
 

I had hoped having an ESO certificate would make me more confident that I could take care of myself if something happens to DH (his day job is high risk and we have family history of cancer on both sides). But I see more and more people in school support work looking to get out because the hours and contracts are often term by term depending on what funding schools can get and because the behavioural challenges are so complex or they are not well respected or supported. It seems to be almost impossible to earn a living wage without also working childcare or OSHC etc.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

My question would be how much you enjoy studying, and what your purpose in going to uni would be.

Do you want to study something you genuinely love? Or do you want to study something that will lead into a better paying career?

I see no harm in applying for things. You can always knock them back if you decide the timing isn't right.

Have you considered anything else other than speech pathology? 

These crossroads moments are tricky, I know.

[Rosie_0801]

Speech is a pretty time heavy degree. I wouldn't want to take that on, plus placements, if I still had to work, kid wrangle, and keep a marriage, a house and a property running. Do they allow part time enrolments?

Unless you hate bookkeeping, can you do a certificate or something and pick up a few clients? That might be more practical until the kids are up and out?

[Ausmumof3]

So between posting and now I realised I missed one of my kids activity’s time slots (changed from our normal time slot) and because I was rushing and stressed managed to scrape my car for the second time this year … ugh … the entry is horrible and someone came out right in the middle of the driveway as I was trying to pull in and didn’t back up… so instead of waiting I tried to squish through and scraped my car on the post 😩
anwyay I think maybe I’m getting the message that I need to slow down not pile on more! 

[Ausmumof3]

59 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said:

Speech is a pretty time heavy degree. I wouldn't want to take that on, plus placements, if I still had to work, kid wrangle, and keep a marriage, a house and a property running. Do they allow part time enrolments?

Unless you hate bookkeeping, can you do a certificate or something and pick up a few clients? That might be more practical until the kids are up and out?

Thanks for being the voice of reason. I did p/a and bookkeeping in my former life and I know my way around MYOB pretty well. But I only have on the job training I’d have to do a certificate to take on clients. I’ll be honest, I basically promised myself after the ESO course that I won’t do another certificate or tafe type course. If I do something I’ll go back to uni. I’d prefer to keep tutoring than take on bookkeeping (and I could also pick up more transcription without study if I wanted to). 
 

That is a good question about part time. I think there’s just a big chunk of me that’s really sad about the end of homeschooling and I feel like I need to throw myself into something that won’t allow me to sit and be miserable.  I could just do more hours of my current job but I’d feel better if I was working toward something…

I would have been happy to just be a stay at home homeschooling mum and then move on to being a grandma but that wasn’t to be and now I can’t figure out what else you know?

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

My question would be how much you enjoy studying, and what your purpose in going to uni would be.

Do you want to study something you genuinely love? Or do you want to study something that will lead into a better paying career?

I see no harm in applying for things. You can always knock them back if you decide the timing isn't right.

Have you considered anything else other than speech pathology? 

These crossroads moments are tricky, I know.

Good questions. I don’t know the answer to be honest. I enjoyed studying at school and did well. I hated my Ed support course but so did everyone else I’ve spoke to who went through my provider. They are really bad and it just felt like a stressful useless experience and the material was very poor. I think I might like studying if it was actually something interesting and well presented. I do love reading and learning so it’s not that, it’s just whether I do well in structured study post high school. I guess a big part of me wants to know the answer to that question because I didn’t get the opportunity before. 
 

As far as love/money thing goes I would be happy not to work if that worked but as it doesn’t I’d rather work at something that paid somewhat decently.  If I have to work, I want it to feel worthwhile. My DH definitely will be more supportive if he thinks there’s a family benefit at the other end. If I could just study purely based on something I love I’d probably do something science or language related… but it would be for the sake of studying not with an end-goal. If I did something purely to make more money I guess I could do accounting or something like that. The reason I’m looking at speech is because it’s a bit of an intersection between what I’m doing and my interests - language, neuroscience and development that feeds into literacy. 
 

My dream job in the past was veterinary but that definitely feels like too much right now and I have a lot of trouble with dermatitis from handwashing and sanitisers. 
 

I could apply and I think defer for two years. TBH though that makes me think I’m better to wait till DS is settled next year. If I applied for 2026 and then school didn’t work out I could defer two years, get him through y10 and he can do distance Ed from there on. Whereas if I started next year I wouldn’t have that option. 
 

Crossroads is definitely the right word… just feels like there’s a lot of bits of our life that have a “what next?” to them and no answer.

The other issue with my current job is holidays are tied to school holidays and DH has his holidays assigned on a schedule meaning it’s quite hard to get family time where we are all able to just go do fun stuff. So that would be another factor in trying to get more qualified - trying to get something that would allow flexibility. 

[Rosie_0801]

33 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I’ll be honest, I basically promised myself after the ESO course that I won’t do another certificate or tafe type course. If I do something I’ll go back to uni.

Why is that?

[Ausmumof3]

Just now, Rosie_0801 said:

Why is that?

Because it doesn’t seem like there’s a massive improvement in pay and conditions between no certificate and a certificate that costs a chunk of money and time, and because the course I did was so poor. I would rather go with university because I assume they operate at a higher standard. But I may be naive about that. 

[Katy]

As someone who’s had multiple kids (mine and temporarily staying with us) need speech therapy,  I’d encourage you to make it a long term goal even if it’s not practical this year. There’s a big shortage of the people qualified for speech therapy here. They can make a huge difference in children’s lives. 

[regentrude]

What you said about mourning the end of homeschooling and looking for a new direction resonated with me so much. I have written about that here before.

If you have this dream, go for it! It may not be possible yet this year, but find a way to make it happen. Defer, or bring your kid to campus with you and homeschool him. Get creative and make it work.

There's a lot of lifetime left, and you're young enough to make a career change. I don't know how expensive uni is where you are, but if it's not insane, I think you should give it a shot.

[PeterPan]

5 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I have been thinking about possibly studying speech therapy to take what I’m doing already to the next level.  There’s a few ups and downs to this. I would like to have some kind of degree behind me (I do have Ed Support but I’d prefer not to work in that). It is related to what I do already. Part of the degree is linguistics which fascinates me.

In the US at least the trend is for SLPs to try to add literacy to their training, so the irony is you're already doing what some SLPs want to do. 🙂 You can find FB groups for SLPs who specialize in literacy and see if you can get some ideas.

My ds has done 13 years of speech therapy and still gets it, so I'm obviously pro speech therapy. However there's sort of a trend where people in any field tend to want to move from doing to administration. Depending on your age, that could start to set in on you. Did you say you have a degree or background in accounting? Are you sure that the very people oriented speech therapy is your jam? Well you're doing tutoring, so you know.

Do you *like* the literacy work you're already doing? Are there ways to make that make you more money? 

Have you done career testing to see what insights that gives you? I did it a couple years ago for myself and it led me into some volunteer work I very much enjoy and actually seem to be good at. Maybe it would give you insights about yourself to refine the direction you're thinking. For instance, you seem like a very organized person, so maybe a masters in public health or health administration would open up fields you hadn't considered. Sometimes certificates can open up work we hadn't considered. 

This will seem cliche, but is it possible to transfer your work experience into some kind of online/digital work? Could you work for a publisher, do online tutoring, or even create (gasp) youtube content on intervention? If you lower transportation and clothing costs, it's like a pay raise.

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

In the US at least the trend is for SLPs to try to add literacy to their training, so the irony is you're already doing what some SLPs want to do. 🙂 You can find FB groups for SLPs who specialize in literacy and see if you can get some ideas.

My ds has done 13 years of speech therapy and still gets it, so I'm obviously pro speech therapy. However there's sort of a trend where people in any field tend to want to move from doing to administration. Depending on your age, that could start to set in on you. Did you say you have a degree or background in accounting? Are you sure that the very people oriented speech therapy is your jam? Well you're doing tutoring, so you know.

Do you *like* the literacy work you're already doing? Are there ways to make that make you more money? 

Have you done career testing to see what insights that gives you? I did it a couple years ago for myself and it led me into some volunteer work I very much enjoy and actually seem to be good at. Maybe it would give you insights about yourself to refine the direction you're thinking. For instance, you seem like a very organized person, so maybe a masters in public health or health administration would open up fields you hadn't considered. Sometimes certificates can open up work we hadn't considered. 

This will seem cliche, but is it possible to transfer your work experience into some kind of online/digital work? Could you work for a publisher, do online tutoring, or even create (gasp) youtube content on intervention? If you lower transportation and clothing costs, it's like a pay raise.

I do enjoy what I do now but it’s part time. It’s definitely one of my concerns as an introvert whether I can sustainably escalate that to a more full time role and not burn out. I don’t have an accounting degree it’s just something that would be relatively doable. I’m not super organised which is some of my hesitation around doing bookkeeping etc. With some of the students I’ve worked with, we’ve basically been implementing stuff from speech therapists. So they assess every month or so and give direction then we do the implementation. There’s also a growing field here of allied health people - I forget what it’s called but it’s a shorter course and they implement strategies. So a person sees an OT or Speechie etc and then this person implements their recommendations and they review periodically rather than the higher qualified persons doing the intensive intervention. I’m not sure if that will eventually mean that speech etc will move more toward being an assessment and program design role with a bit less face to face. 
 

The only way to make more money doing my current work would be to be MSL certified which is a relatively short but expensive course and work for myself.  TBH I’d feel a bit bad going into direct competition with my boss as she is lovely to work for and we’d be in the same school. Plus to be honest for the difference it would make I’m not sure if it would be worth it to deal with all the parent dramas, no-shows, scheduling etc. I do have a vague vision of a studio at home where I could do speech and literacy work and really set it up to involve outdoor and create a very hands on engaging environment but it’s not super clear to me how I could create that yet, and obviously that would be years off. I’d love to be able to bring a different mindset to intervention. 

The other option is you can choose to do speech but stream into a more research focused course for the last year. But I’m hearing a lot of horror stories about how hard it is to find employment in that area here. There’s a lot more work interstate but we definitely wouldn’t be moving for that.

Edited July 9 by Ausmumof3

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

What you said about mourning the end of homeschooling and looking for a new direction resonated with me so much. I have written about that here before.

If you have this dream, go for it! It may not be possible yet this year, but find a way to make it happen. Defer, or bring your kid to campus with you and homeschool him. Get creative and make it work.

There's a lot of lifetime left, and you're young enough to make a career change. I don't know how expensive uni is where you are, but if it's not insane, I think you should give it a shot.

Thank you for your encouragement. I definitely think reading your and others threads about that post homeschooling struggle is making me put thought into how to make that transition work. 

[Hannah]

What I’m hearing is that the primary reason that you want to study is to have more security of employment should something happen to your Dh. Since speech therapy interests you and would offer job security, even though pay might not be much higher, then the question is how important that feeling of security is. Here there are absolutely no social safety nets, so for me it’s always been a big thing to keep my foot in the corporate door and know I could ramp up and support our family if needed. I think Aus is “safer” though?

If that is your primary motivator, then the question is not if, but rather when you start studying. 

I’d let ds start in school, give it a few months to see how he settles, and then apply for 2026. You’d still have the option to defer.

In the meantime you could explore whether you can start with one or two subjects with transferable credits to see how studying at uni fits you.

 

 

[Arcadia]

12 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I had hoped having an ESO certificate would make me more confident that I could take care of myself if something happens to DH (his day job is high risk and we have family history of cancer on both sides).

A friend is an ESO. She is thinking of quitting but is taking it a year at a time since her current placement is okay. Her family is approximately upper middle class in terms of pay and assets. So she could call it a day anytime. She still has a kid in college so even if she quit they still have to vacation during school holidays. 

I am assuming your husband’s day job is high risk in terms of layoffs and not disability/fatality. My husband work in tech and layoffs are often. When I worked in tech, I calculated headcount at midnight after every quarter close and my boss would stay up to wait for my numbers. We put more into emergency savings than typical probably. In the case of layoffs, both my husband and I could earn by giving tuition more than we would earn doing typical temp work. Medical issues are what is really hard to plan for and we hope insurance would help a little if and when that day comes. 
 

So short term wise I would look at cost and time for college. If you have to take a loan to pay for college, then the return on investment would be more of a deciding factor to me than if you have the cash on hand to pay. For example, when I took a full time postgraduate certificate and had cash in hand to pay, it took me three months to breakeven on tuition costs but took me about two years to breakeven on income lost while studying full time. I have workaholic tendencies so part time study doesn’t work well for me. 

[prairiewindmomma]

You’ve gotten lots of great advice upthread. WWID? I’d put ds in school and give it a few months to adjust to the new balance in life. I’d use that time to get the house in order, develop some habits that free up chunks of time, and really explore job listing and uni programs and vet that out fully. I’d look at your ROI and sort out my internal feelings. You just came out of a period of struggle, and that weighed heavily on you. I do think your sense of security matters…whether you accomplish that through a new line of work or through other means…I’d explore that. I think things will be clearer with time.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

@Ausmumof3  Another consideration is pre-reqs. Do you have the necessary pre-reqs for any of the degrees you are considering? Or would you also have to factor in the time, money and energy for bridging courses?

From everything you've said so far, it sounds like you really would like to experience university study at some point, but maybe right now isn't the ideal timing. 

Have you looked at fee-free TAFE options recently? I know you said you'd had a bad experience (TAFE?) but I know several people who have taken advantage of the fee-free courses in recent years, and they've been pleased they've done it. I don't know if these vary by state, but there may be something that interests you and helps with income.

Another thing to consider with university study is the lack of flexibility. There's no flexibility with regards to things like class schedules, exam timing, pracs/placements etc. It can be quite stressful when you're also juggling children, homeschooling, work and general household management. I don't mean to be negative; it's just a practical consideration.

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

@Ausmumof3  Another consideration is pre-reqs. Do you have the necessary pre-reqs for any of the degrees you are considering? Or would you also have to factor in the time, money and energy for bridging courses?

From everything you've said so far, it sounds like you really would like to experience university study at some point, but maybe right now isn't the ideal timing. 

Have you looked at fee-free TAFE options recently? I know you said you'd had a bad experience (TAFE?) but I know several people who have taken advantage of the fee-free courses in recent years, and they've been pleased they've done it. I don't know if these vary by state, but there may be something that interests you and helps with income.

Another thing to consider with university study is the lack of flexibility. There's no flexibility with regards to things like class schedules, exam timing, pracs/placements etc. It can be quite stressful when you're also juggling children, homeschooling, work and general household management. I don't mean to be negative; it's just a practical consideration.

So I was accepted into the course years ago when I completed high school, but I grew up in a family with the culture/attitude that girls will just leave and have babies so there’s no point going to university (it wasn’t forbidden as such but just wasn’t part of the vision). I don’t know if that guarantees I’d get in but I think I’d have a reasonable chance given that my current line of work is related. I’d possibly have to sit a test, or might be able to have my ATAR considered even though it’s so old.

Unfortunately because I paid for my CERT IV I’m not eligible for free free you can only get it if you haven’t already used one. I wish I’d done my course this way but it did require in person whereas my online course only required placement at the end to be in person. (I’m in a bit better position now to deal with that)

Edited July 9 by Ausmumof3

[Ausmumof3]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

A friend is an ESO. She is thinking of quitting but is taking it a year at a time since her current placement is okay. Her family is approximately upper middle class in terms of pay and assets. So she could call it a day anytime. She still has a kid in college so even if she quit they still have to vacation during school holidays. 

I am assuming your husband’s day job is high risk in terms of layoffs and not disability/fatality. My husband work in tech and layoffs are often. When I worked in tech, I calculated headcount at midnight after every quarter close and my boss would stay up to wait for my numbers. We put more into emergency savings than typical probably. In the case of layoffs, both my husband and I could earn by giving tuition more than we would earn doing typical temp work. Medical issues are what is really hard to plan for and we hope insurance would help a little if and when that day comes. 
 

So short term wise I would look at cost and time for college. If you have to take a loan to pay for college, then the return on investment would be more of a deciding factor to me than if you have the cash on hand to pay. For example, when I took a full time postgraduate certificate and had cash in hand to pay, it took me three months to breakeven on tuition costs but took me about two years to breakeven on income lost while studying full time. I have workaholic tendencies so part time study doesn’t work well for me. 

No higher risk for disability/cancer etc - he’s a fiery - statistically less dangerous than policing, fishing, forestry etc but it is a job that requires you to be able to maintain a certain level of physical fitness 

Valid point about the debt. Basically how it works here is you take out a loan but you only repay once you earn over a certain threshold. Then it comes out of your tax in a chunk. My last course I was able to pay for over the period of the course out of my work pay, so I didn’t feel bad that it was taking extra money from the family. But I think part of the reason the course was so poor was because it was the lowest cost option so the support was very minimal.

Edited July 9 by Ausmumof3

[Ausmumof3]

3 hours ago, Hannah said:

What I’m hearing is that the primary reason that you want to study is to have more security of employment should something happen to your Dh. Since speech therapy interests you and would offer job security, even though pay might not be much higher, then the question is how important that feeling of security is. Here there are absolutely no social safety nets, so for me it’s always been a big thing to keep my foot in the corporate door and know I could ramp up and support our family if needed. I think Aus is “safer” though?

If that is your primary motivator, then the question is not if, but rather when you start studying. 

I’d let ds start in school, give it a few months to see how he settles, and then apply for 2026. You’d still have the option to defer.

In the meantime you could explore whether you can start with one or two subjects with transferable credits to see how studying at uni fits you.

 

 

That’s a good suggestion I might look into what short stuff I can do through Open Uni that would cross over 

[Frances]

34 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

So I was accepted into the course years ago when I completed high school, but I grew up in a family with the culture/attitude that girls will just leave and have babies so there’s no point going to university (it wasn’t forbidden as such but just wasn’t part of the vision). I don’t know if that guarantees I’d get in but I think I’d have a reasonable chance given that my current line of work is related. I’d possibly have to sit a test, or might be able to have my ATAR considered even though it’s so old.

Unfortunately because I paid for my CERT IV I’m not eligible for free free you can only get it if you haven’t already used one. I wish I’d done my course this way but it did require in person whereas my online course only required placement at the end to be in person. (I’m in a bit better position now to deal with that)

I don’t think it hurts to apply and then decide later.  At least where I live, it’s an extremely competitive program to get into despite the high need.

[bookbard]

I would absolutely encourage you to go to university. It really opens up your world. I did my grad dip then masters and now doing my phD. Did all three online and homeschooling. I am sending my tiny nerdy boy off to year 7 next year and I am sure he will cope as there are a lot of other tiny nerdy boys out there!

I would investigate the HECS costs of doing a speech path degree vs a special education degree. The govt heavily funds education degrees - my masters was prob a third of the cost of a non-education degree. On the other hand, with speech path, there are so many jobs, you can work for yourself. Probably more hoops though. Most of the my speech path friends have ended up leaving after having kids because it's hard to keep up the requirements with maternity leave, but if you're starting with older kids, you may not have that issue.

Can you do any part of the speech path degree online? 

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Ausmumof3 said:

No higher risk for disability/cancer etc - he’s a fiery - statistically less dangerous than policing, fishing, forestry etc but it is a job that requires you to be able to maintain a certain level of physical fitness 

Valid point about the debt. Basically how it works here is you take out a loan but you only repay once you earn over a certain threshold. Then it comes out of your tax in a chunk. My last course I was able to pay for over the period of the course out of my work pay, so I didn’t feel bad that it was taking extra money from the family. But I think part of the reason the course was so poor was because it was the lowest cost option so the support was very minimal.

Besides putting aside more money for emergency savings, maybe look into this compensation program though I hope you never need to use it.

https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/318/Firefighters-Presumptive-Rights-Compensation-Brochure.pdf
“Employee and Volunteer Firefighters who meet certain requirements can now access presumptive compensation for specified cancers contracted while serving as a firefighter.

Presumptive compensation means that an eligible firefighter doesn't have to prove that firefighting is the cause of their cancer when they make a claim.”

I think the loan in your case isn’t as bad because it is income based and not structured like a bank loan. My online MBA program (in person exams and pre-exam review classes) was the cheapest I could find at the time, the teachers were great while the admin support was minimal for students and lecturers. The lecturers I had also taught on campus so they were already very familiar with the admin and school policies. 

[Ausmumof3]

7 minutes ago, bookbard said:

I would absolutely encourage you to go to university. It really opens up your world. I did my grad dip then masters and now doing my phD. Did all three online and homeschooling. I am sending my tiny nerdy boy off to year 7 next year and I am sure he will cope as there are a lot of other tiny nerdy boys out there!

I would investigate the HECS costs of doing a speech path degree vs a special education degree. The govt heavily funds education degrees - my masters was prob a third of the cost of a non-education degree. On the other hand, with speech path, there are so many jobs, you can work for yourself. Probably more hoops though. Most of the my speech path friends have ended up leaving after having kids because it's hard to keep up the requirements with maternity leave, but if you're starting with older kids, you may not have that issue.

Can you do any part of the speech path degree online? 

Yeah I think it’s blended online and face to face although it’s unclear as to what percentage so that would help. If it was full time on campus I would struggle for sure.

I think my boss is special Ed. So I guess there’s options for that outside the classroom but I really don’t want to take a class, I struggle with crowd control 

[bookbard]

Just now, Ausmumof3 said:

I think my boss is special Ed. So I guess there’s options for that outside the classroom but I really don’t want to take a class, I struggle with crowd control 

yes, I am the same - never liked teaching whole classes. There are other options to school teaching for special education such as Early Intervention - it's very different under NDIS but can include visiting preschools to advise, being the key worker etc. 

[Ausmumof3]

1 minute ago, Arcadia said:

Besides putting aside more money for emergency savings, maybe look into this compensation program though I hope you never need to use it.

https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/318/Firefighters-Presumptive-Rights-Compensation-Brochure.pdf
“Employee and Volunteer Firefighters who meet certain requirements can now access presumptive compensation for specified cancers contracted while serving as a firefighter.

Presumptive compensation means that an eligible firefighter doesn't have to prove that firefighting is the cause of their cancer when they make a claim.”

I think the loan in your case isn’t as bad because it is income based and not structured like a bank loan. My online MBA program (in person exams and pre-exam review classes) was the cheapest I could find at the time, the teachers were great while the admin support was minimal for students and lecturers. The lecturers I had also taught on campus so they were already very familiar with the admin and school policies. 

This does apply to my DH but the time periods are the issue. He has a friend who got terminal lymphoma after 14 years and the qualifying period is 15 years 😩 so he is not eligible. We do have some life insurance but I think if we drop it we couldn’t take it out again we can only keep it because it’s pre-existing 

[PeterPan]

11 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

The only way to make more money doing my current work would be to be MSL certified which is a relatively short but expensive course and work for myself.  TBH I’d feel a bit bad going into direct competition with my boss as she is lovely to work for and we’d be in the same school.

I'm confused, what school? With what you're describing, that's what I would do. You already know you like it, and the course is SHORT.  Is it absolutely expensive or expensive relative to the amount of time it takes? The roi is being able to work sooner. 

SLP has issues, at least in the US. You train very broadly, realize you need to specialize, spend even more time/$$ specializing. ASHA has talked about having specialties, but I don't think they do yet. Some someone might be, in theory, expected to treat a geriatric person then a young child with apraxia and then a teen who stutters. It's just crazy the WIDE RANGE of what one human is expected to do. Apraxia (what my ds was dealing with, moderate to severe) requires astonishing specialization. So you'd spend a stupid ton of money and be a jack of all trades. Or you could go do that one course and get GOOD at what you already know you like to do. 

To me, that's a no brainer. Get GOOD at someone, really good.

11 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I’d love to be able to bring a different mindset to intervention. 

In what way? At least in the US, the issues are lack of funding for the hours it would really take to make magic happen and lack of specialized training for very hard problems (ie. generalists being asked to do specialized work). To me, as someone on the receiving end who considered going for the SLP degree, I concluded it would just break my heart. That's just me. If people can't afford what I do, it would break my heart.

Back to the school thing and your current boss. Did she have you sign a non-compete? Did she pay for training? 

To me, business is BUSINESS. Don't be emotional about this. There is enough need to go around, so it's only good to increase your skills and be there. I wouldn't violate a non-compete (ie. a contract you signed).

If you got the improved degree, could you work with her and have increased pay but less admin hassles?

 

Edited July 10 by PeterPan