Turn Education Into a New Job

If you're in a dead-end job or concerned about your career growth potential, now may be a good time to look into furthering your education or training. The education requirements necessary to advance in your current field or transition into a new career vary by field but often include getting a program certificate or an associate's or bachelor's degree. Most of these education requirements can be completed online, so you can keep your day job while preparing for your new one.

When switching careers, it's important to consider occupations that are likely to see employment growth. Some of the occupations with the largest projected employment growth over the next decade are in the healthcare, education, and information technology industries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010–2011 edition. 

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Within the healthcare industry, registered nurses will be seeing some large employment growth—22 percent from 2008 to 2018—which means that more than 1 million new and replacement positions will be available, according to the BLS. This growth is expected because of the growing elderly population in the United States, the BLS reports. Also, more hospitals are cutting costs by staffing additional registered nurses who are qualified to do work that more highly paid health workers would normally do.

To become a registered nurse, there are three routes you can take: a four-year university program with a bachelor of science in nursing, a two-to-three-year plan for an associate's degree in nursing, or a three-year diploma program from a hospital. Regardless of the path you choose, you have to pass a state licensing exam for registered nurses in order to practice. There are many opportunities to advance within the nursing field, and those with at least a bachelor's degree will have more job opportunities, according to the BLS. To get a bachelor's degree, RN-to-BSN programs are offered through both traditional ground-based universities and online schools. With the online degree programs, clinical work is typically done on campus in conjunction with the online courses. Those who want to become a nurse and have earned a bachelor's degree in another field can attend an accelerated BSN program that usually takes 12 to 18 months, which is one of the fastest ways to earn a BSN. The median salary for registered nurses is $62,450, and the job comes with many employment benefits, including flexible work schedules, child care, education stipends, and bonuses.

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To become an advanced practice nurse, which includes clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, nurse-midwives, and nurse practitioners, you need a master's degree and clinical practice. Accelerated master of science in nursing programs award a BSN and an MSN and take three to four years, or two years for those who already have their BSN. These four advanced practice specialties will be in high demand, especially in inner cities and rural areas, according to the BLS. Also, nurses can earn a certificate in a nursing specialty to enhance their skill sets. Some of the most popular specialty programs include critical care nursing, geriatric nursing, and oncology nursing, according to the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the world's largest nurse credentialing body. Nurses seeking a BSN or an advanced nursing degree should consult with their hospitals, as many have tuition reimbursement programs that can cover some of the costs. Several federal and state government programs also offer scholarships or loan forgiveness programs that are tied to an employee's commitment to work in underserved areas for a certain time, according to the American Nurses Association.

Another ever growing field is education, where elementary, middle, and high school teachers are in demand. According to the BLS, the employment opportunities for primary, secondary, and special education teachers are expected to grow about 14 percent over the next decade, with 1.7 million new and replacement positions available. The median salary for primary and secondary school teachers ranges from $47,100 to $51,180. The requirements to become an elementary, middle, or high school teacher include a bachelor's degree, usually through a teacher education program at an undergraduate four-year institution, and a license to teach from the state, which is not required for teaching in private schools.

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For those who want to make a midcareer switch into teaching but don't have a bachelor's degree in education, there are alternative teaching certification programs offered by all 50 states and the District of Columbia. These programs have seen exponential growth in the past decade. About 62,000 teachers were certified through alternative routes in 2008 and 2009, which made up one third of all new teachers hired in the United States last year, says Emily Feistritzer, president of the National Center for Alternative Certification. She says there are 600 programs that implement these other paths for teacher certification across the country, and the majority require participants to pass the Praxis test to earn state certification. The programs cost on average between $5,000 and $6,000 and usually take two years to complete, Feistritzer says. One such program is the American Board for Certification of Teaching Excellence, which provides alternative teaching certificates accepted in nine states and was founded by a grant from the Department of Education. To complete the program, the participant must hold at least a bachelor's degree and then pass a background check, as well as a professional teaching knowledge exam and a second exam in one of the program's 10 different subject areas. The entire program, which generally takes eight to 10 months to complete, is offered through online workshops and videos, with the exams administered at local testing centers, says Mike Holden, an ABCTE spokesperson.

Science, mathematics, special education, and English as a second language are subject areas with the greatest need for new teachers, according to the Department of Education's Transition to Teaching program. The Transition to Teaching program is currently funding 219 programs with universities, nonprofit organizations, and school districts that take nonteachers, often midcareer professionals, through a pathway to becoming certified teachers. To find out the types of alternative teaching certification programs offered in your state, visit the National Center for Alternative Certification's website, or to see a certification requirements guide on a U.S. map. Additionally, each state's department of education website includes a list of programs that have been approved by the state.

With today's businesses becoming more globally interconnected and reliant upon technology, the field of information technology has grown exponentially. Specifically, the computer software engineer occupation is expected to increase by 32 percent in the next decade, with about 372,000 new and replacement positions available, according to the BLS. The median salary for a computer applications software engineer, who creates computer applications software programs, is $85,430. The median salary for a computer systems software engineer, who constructs, maintains, and expands the computer system for an organization, is $92,430. These positions both require a bachelor's degree in software engineering, computer science, or a computer-related field. "Experience and seniority help you to move up the ladder in the computing world," says Bobby Schnabel, dean of the School of Informatics at Indiana University. "The computing field is a more egalitarian field than many others."

In addition to recommending educational training to transition into a new career or advance in an existing field, career coaches suggest experiential learning in the field of interest. A company called VocationVacations, founded by career consultant Brian Kurth in 2004, offers people thinking about a career transition the opportunity to visit with around 500 mentors in more than 180 different careers for a two-day mentoring experience. Kurth says the most popular vocation categories include culinary, entertainment, tourism/hospitality, and fashion. Adult internships are also becoming more common as outlets for those interested in switching careers. There is one website that offers adult internships, part-time work, and virtual internships for people considering switching careers, says Lindsey Pollak, author of Getting from College to Career.

While transitioning into these careers will most likely require re-education and training, there are openings for which an employee's current skill set from a previous job may apply. "Moving into a growth field doesn't necessarily mean changing your functional responsibility and changing your profession," Pollak says. In the healthcare field, for example, Pollak says there are many administrative, marketing, and business-related positions that may not require additional training.