Scholarships late in life

[Emily Repnyek]

Dear Mike,
I agree that not nearly enough emphasis was put on vocational education. For instance, I have a degree in accounting, which I am not able to use because I am disabled. I am on a fixed income. I am now a housewife. A dirty job. But my husband went to a votech in high school for electrical, and along the way got into unlicensed plumbing. He did that in commercial buildings for 10 years. Then he did retail plumbing positions for 5. The economy hit, no one was building houses, and he lost his job for 2 years. Then we started our own janitorial company and are cleaning post offices. Another dirty job. But the U.S. Senate has decided to scale back post office funding and has decided to get rid of post office annex cleaning contracts, thereby eliminating half of our income. We are not allergic to dirty work. But it seems that everyone around here is allergic to hiring people in this economy. We are making new jobs for ourselves, but we keep getting laid off.
We have some money set aside that would allow my husband to learn a new trade and we would like to take advantage of your scholarship programs, but they all seem for those exiting high school or going into college. We also live in a rural area with only a small college available. Is there any scholarship programs that you have for those that have to make a vocational change mid-life in the heartland?

[songbird]

Hi Emily,

I'm sorry to hear about your current job situation.

Here are some job listings state-by-state. Hope this helps and you find something that sticks.

http://www.mikeroweworks.com/job-site/jobs/

[east1952]

You bring up a very good point, Emily. Even though mrW started out as a place primarily for high school students who wanted something different than the traditional four year college route to finding a job, it has become obvious the past few years that an increasing number of "older" employees are looking for a new career, either due to loss of their job, or maybe in a desire to try something new.

Often they don't have the money to get the education they need to start a new career. I agree that mrW should provide scholarships for these people as well as those currently graduating from high school. I'd also like to suggest some kind of contest (although I think we could come up with a better word than that) where people who are starting over later in life could describe their former career, how they decided to embark on a new one, and what they had to go through in order to achieve their dream. The person(s) with the most compelling story would receive a cash "prize" that could be used to pay off their school loans, help with the financial aspects of their new job, or in some other way related to this change in their career.

Emily, it's disappointing to hear that so many of the "dirty" jobs you and your husband had have been eliminated or cut back. It always seems that the people who work the hardest, often for little pay, are the first to be let go. It makes absolutely no sense to me.

I wish you good luck in finding a job. Hopefully mrW will be able to provide you some kind of support, even if it's not necessarily financial.

Liz

[Bluechild]

Hi Emily. I do believe more talk will be about older folks changing careers, jobs or continuing to work. Not just about getting high schoolers interested in the trades. We'll all have to work longer past the traditional retirement age, mainly out of necessity. The traditional retirement lifestyle is soon to become a thing of the past for a lot of us. Those of us less than twenty years away from 65 know we may have to continue working. This link is about a specific kind of job, but the site itself may be a source for some additional information you may be able to use. Hang in there!

http://www.aarp.org/work/job-hunting...om-town.1.html


Gayle