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I've been thinking recently about doing a part time or one off course in something different which as well as being interesting might offer up some future job opportunities.
HGV licence
Some kind of therapy training
Coding
RHS gardening course
I guess I'm just putting it out there as maybe a thread others can use if looking for ideas.
Thanks
Bike mechanic?
Archery? I learned a little to teach at Scouts etc. Oddly satisfying
Don’t waste your time on coding. It’s a shit job that will be replaced by AI sooner rather than later.
Learn plumbing. Or domestic electrics.
Not for job opportunities but I've done both art ( drawing and painting) courses and guitar.
I did the art for about ten years - evolved from local college ( got an NVQ) into private lessons/art group when the teacher got made redundant and took all her students with her!
Guitar group lesson weekly.
Mainly done to get myself out of work head. Art is particularly mindful.
Archery? I learned a little to teach at Scouts etc. Oddly satisfying <br /><br />
First, you should join a club and learn to do it properly. There are safety protocols involved, equipment required and likely insurance as well. <br />Unless plastic bows using arrows with suckers on the end are being used, in which case you’re probably ok.
I’d be interested to know what sort of equipment used and situation the archery was taking place in. I’ve only been doing it since August, but the club is very strict about etiquette and behaviour and where we can shoot.
Bike mechanic?
Does the OP wish to live in poverty?
Following with interest. I'm a bike industry escapee who can actually pay the bills but I'm bored out of my mind.
If you're fairly fit and like the outdoors, Tree surgery. Not necessarily the 10m plus stuff, but garden sized, recently planted trees can benefit from a bit of care. And people will pay. It's surprising what you can do with decent ladders and telescopic loppers. Quite rewarding too.
First, you should join a club and learn to do it properly. There are safety protocols involved, equipment required and likely insurance as well. <br />Unless plastic bows using arrows with suckers on the end are being used, in which case you’re probably ok.
I’d be interested to know what sort of equipment used and situation the archery was taking place in. I’ve only been doing it since August, but the club is very strict about etiquette and behaviour and where we can shoot.
Indeed lots to learn including how and where a range can be set. How to string bows, fletch arrows etc, manage a range and how to teach it. <br />As it happens I use the range in our hut, or set a suitable outdoor one in line with Archery GB regs. <br />But you don’t need to know all that to start having a bit of a fun and learning a new skill.
First, you should join a club and learn to do it properly. There are safety protocols involved, equipment required and likely insurance as well.
Funnily enough, the Scouts are pretty hot on that sort of thing too....see also shooting, climbing, canoeing, mountain biking and every other activity they will let you get qualified in.
Yellow Pages cold caller?
Do it.
I'd like to pick up a guitar or bass again and get to "mediocre" (that'd be a good level for me as while I have a few talents music isn't one).
I've plans to do some race official training for dinghy sailing over the next year or two.
I'd like to do some mountain leadership stuff over a similar time frame.
I'd quite like to learn how to use Visio but that's a work/career thing.
A friend of ours used to maintain an HGV license. He used to do long distance domestic loads one weekend a month. The money I think helped him keep the license up and he loved driving the trucks.
@brian2, sounds like you have experience of this. I'm intrigued, tell us more
I've got a guide ticket but haven't monetized it yet. I could cytech and pick up loads of little jobs. But it's be for pin money not asa job nearest lbs pretty much won't do mtbs so it's a 30mile round trip.
Bought a drone for roof inspection of my own roof and wondered if this could turn a profit.
Using a large modular synthesiser to create ambient music albums. It's a real growth area
Learn a language - I'm really enjoying learning French at the moment.
Archery? I learned a little to teach at Scouts etc. Oddly satisfying
Of course. Scouts and archery. It's actually the perfect combination.
PAT testing. Seems like money for old rope to me but I'm confident that I will be proven wrong.
My sister had a part-time gig artificially inseminating cows on top of doing the admin stuff for her husband's plumbing business. Paid well, they saved up enough money to buy a farm.
PAT testing. Seems like money for old rope to me but I’m confident that I will be proven wrong.
It’s up there with portable fire extinguisher inspection.
It’s not hard to do and needs to be done, but soul crushing tedium.
I’ve done both and it’s just a question as to which goes first, your knees or your will to live.
I’m off to college in January to learn to weld properly. Useful skill, I have some money-making ideas that might work out with it, and also it’s pretty dang manly.
Interesting. I keep looking at welding courses but what I really want is a night class. These seem to be things of the past! Which course and college are you going to?
HGV licence. Done that. The only excitement was getting my call-up letter from the Government imploring me to come back to driving during Covid. Needs practice to keep the skills, 5-yearly medicals once you get past 45, CPC qualifications, etc. If you do this you really need to get a PT job to keep it going
Some kind of therapy training. Some therapies aren't regulated so you'll be competing with people who will cut costs. The first thing that disappears during financial hardship are your clients
Coding. No idea
RHS gardening course. Done that. For a business garden waste is a pain to dispose of. With a list of clients you have to work in all weathers from boiling hot to freezing cold. Winter is when you'll start the gardening cycle and probably chuck a bit of gutter-clearing in too
what I really want is a night class. These seem to be things of the past!
Young people today don't know how easy they have it. When I was young, I had to do a 15 hour shift in the factory, then take night classes after work. There were 9 of us living in three rooms, all we had for supper was a chicken breast and one potato to share among all 9 of us. On special occasions, we'd get a teaspoon of butter to put on the potato.
Do you want to learn something useful or useless?
A while back I set myself to learn something useless each year. Juggling, navigating by and identifying stars, whisky tasting, baking were amongst the stuff I learnt.
‘Coding’ to do what? If it’s a bit of noodling around at home then Coursera HarvardX and the like have some nicely-paced courses.
I’d suggest learning a human language before a programming one unless you find the ‘magic’ of making a machine do stuff irresistible. See Clifford Stoll’s High Tech Heretic.
I’ve been hearing that the machines and standards will be coming to steal ‘coders’ jobs for a while. Seems that only more jobs have been created and production times not changed much. Many of those jobs are now created in ‘lower-cost countries’ and while I’m sure entry-level jobs exist, the coding skills of good graduates and similar that I’ve seen have been very good. My sample has been very biased. Coding, like many things, needs practice to stay OK at. Still, maybe GPT is the final straw? Or not.
If you want to learn something ‘useful’ then how about considering ‘soft’ skills like negotiation, influencing, and the like?
Do it.
I’d like to pick up a guitar or bass again and get to “mediocre” (that’d be a good level for me as while I have a few talents music isn’t one).
Buy a Yousician subscription in the current sale. You'll pass mediocre in no time.
It got me over the hump of 'permanent beginner' to playing along to dozens of full songs.
I’d like to do some mountain leadership stuff over a similar time frame.
The Summer ML award is a pretty worthwhile thing, just for one's own skill development. However, its not cheap if you're paying for it yourself. The courses alone will come to over £800.
I really enjoyed doing it, forced me to sharpen my nav from the classic, sloppy climber approach!
I’ve been hearing that the machines and standards will be coming to steal ‘coders’ jobs for a while.
It's over 40 years sonce "The Last One" was released, which was a program that could write programs. There have been many pretenders since then. Yes a lot of coding is fairly straightforward and will probably be automated eventually, but I expect there will still be people involved in specifying, configuring and testing it for a while yet
As for RHS gardening course - most people don't know much about the plants in their garden and don't value the skills and knowledge of someone who does. Which is why many garden maintenance folk are just someone with a van and tools who cut everything to the same shape at the same time of year. You'd need to target the right areas to stand a chance of building a decent number of clients.
Therapy training. I struggled to find someone who had availability at under £60 an hour.
Seemed to be a lot of posh women with double barrel surnames with ' therapy suits '.
Online was only marginally cheaper. You will need to get a degree, and be prepared to listen to some tough stuff.
Don’t waste your time on coding. It’s a shit job that will be replaced by AI sooner rather than later.
"Hi Chatbot, write me a script to infiltrate and overthrow Skynet please."
"I'm afraid I can't do that Dave."
The Summer ML award is a pretty worthwhile thing, just for one’s own skill development. However, its not cheap if you’re paying for it yourself. The courses alone will come to over £800.
I really enjoyed doing it, forced me to sharpen my nav from the classic, sloppy climber approach!
I would second that. It is still, alongside my 5*/Advanced Leader, the best outdoor qualification and course I have done. Seriously challenging, great personal development, skills for life and deep satisfaction.
It is though that £800, plus first aid, plus a minimum of 100 days on the hill between training and assessment - travel, accommodation and kit.
I’d like to pick up a guitar or bass again and get to “mediocre”
When I was young I wanted to play the guitar really badly after hard work and practice I can now play the guitar really badly.
If forced to I would retrain as an electrician but specifically in renewable technology / smart home management systems etc.
A friend took a couple of very extensive RHS courses. After passing their quite hard exams, she now has her own business and it's doing well as she knows what she's talking about. The tricky bit is learning all the 'Botanical' names to the common/uncommon plants and flowers. She's learnt how to maintain ponds, plant woodland, hedges and even a bit of garden design, how to put together habitat for wildlife and of course the normal things you would expect, such as growing fruit and veg, flower borders. The courses were a bit expensive as were all the tools.
brian2, sounds like you have experience of this. I’m intrigued, tell us
Also something I've thought of - I'm currently a bit fixated with YouTube lawn tidying videos, which looks incredibly satisfying.
The HGV stuff is a pain in the backside these days thanks to the bloody requirement to maintain professional development now.
As well as being an engineer, im also a horse riding instructor (BHSAI - Stage 3).
Thought about becoming a motorcycle training instructor too.
Harness/monetize your other interests and passions.
'Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life' 😀
If I could turn back the clock I'd learn how to move large quantities of drugs around the world. There's clearly loads of money in it. The market is going nowhere.
The HGV stuff is a pain in the backside these days thanks to the bloody requirement to maintain professional development now.
Damn those pesky regs to try and keep other motorists safe. Once every 5 years isn't much of a strain.
Don’t waste your time on coding. It’s a shit job that will be replaced by AI sooner rather than later.
I don't think coding is going anywhere anytime soon, but standards are getting a bit higher - I don't think you can reasonably expect to land a job in it after having smashed through a introductory tutorial any more. Not impossible to career change into it, but I reckon you have to be pretty determined.
I am half way through completing my RYA Yachtmaster (theory and other required courses completed, just need to take the practical). My plan is to delivery yachts around the world in semi retirement. Pay is rubbish but you don't spend much cash in the middle of the Bay of Biscay.
Referring to the posters who mentioned welding.
The most mindful thing I've ever done is TIG welding. I'm am engineer who develops/ prototypes/fabs stuff in the chemical industry so occasionally welds stuff.
I have a big Lincoln Ac/Dc set with foot pedal control. Honestly the dog could have died that morning and the wife run off with the milkman, none of it would register once that ark cracks up and the puddle appears. It is such a zen like state when you are adjusting amps with with the pedal and feeding filler wire in 'stacking dimes'
I absolutely love it. However I'm sure doing it every day for decades wouldn't have the same appeal.
Don't bother with stick or Mig - they are such dirty/horrid methods of welding in comparison.
Regarding coding.
I'd recommend industrial PLC coding/programming instead. It's interesting and an uncrowded market. Good salaries and lots of demand. ChatGpt won't swallow it up.