by Agathe Guetat May 27, 2019

Learn - resume your studies...

“ Freedom is not being able to do what you want, but wanting what you can.”

jean paul Sartre

When we were young, let's be honest, we prayed to finish school, university, prep, studies as quickly as possible... And now that we've been out of it for a few years already, we find ourselves wondering if we might go back to school... we have to believe that things aren't going well with us! Except that this kind of thinking, when we know that 10% of students are adults who have already worked, must be running through the minds of many of us…. There are many reasons why the idea of going back to school comes to mind:

Because we are seeing new professions appear that we did not suspect at the time we entered working life.
Because we want to maintain or develop our skills to adapt to ever more demanding demands.
Because our ambition sometimes takes precedence over reason.
Because we question ourselves, we have been doing this work for years and over time we are no longer fulfilled.
Because we want to discover something else, another job, other people and to retrain professionally.
Because with more skills or diplomas this would be an opportunity to make a significant jump in salary.
Perhaps also as a challenge, to obtain the diploma we never had and achieve great personal satisfaction.
Because we have a thirst to learn, to be interested, to progress and with a little support everything is possible.

Sabine, a friend, passed by. At 36, after several years as head of advertising in a press group, she understood that she wanted something else and to become self-employed. She then decided to start training as an interior designer at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Modernes but full-time, and quit her job. 4 years later, after juggling managing her personal and student life, she obtained her diploma and set up her interior decoration and architecture business. She does not regret for a second this choice, although it is not obvious. Just like Fanny, 38, who worked in the legal department of a consumer group but who felt that she was stagnating and needed a little “intellectual stimulation”. At the same time as her work, she began a distance learning master's degree in private law at the University of Paris 8 and once she received her diploma, she finally dared to apply for a slightly more important position, which she successfully obtained!

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

Albert Einstein

Whatever the case, we must be able to grant ourselves this freedom to change and start again in exchange for an inevitable lot of sacrifices.

Financial first, when you choose to abandon a job and your salary to devote yourself solely to your files... Which not everyone can afford. We will then consider combining the two, even if it means leading a double life and agreeing to put vacations, hobbies, family and social life on hold. Even if today, in an attempt to make the challenge more accessible, universities are developing more and more modules specially designed for adult students. Like programs with staggered schedules, intensive seminars or distance or correspondence courses which I will tell you about a little further on. In this case, it will be much easier to reconcile student and personal life. If we dare to take the plunge we will also, inevitably, have some concerns. Being the oldest in your class, finding yourself with young people perhaps the same age as your children...So what! It rejuvenates us, gives us a boost, there's nothing to be ashamed of! And we are convinced that the little young people in question have a lot to learn, in all humility themselves, from cohabitation with someone more mature, who has already experienced successes as well as failures in other fields and who precisely dares to question himself to give meaning to his life. We will also have to rediscover the learning automatisms that we have not experienced for...several years! Read theory, memorize, write more or less long writings... Or, putting up with the fear of failure and grades that don't live up to our hopes or what we feel we deserve. It's crazy to see how much less that mattered to us back then! It is our experience and our maturity that make us feel free to return to studies and take responsibility for becoming young again. So let’s take advantage of this strength to embark on this beneficial and fulfilling project! Concretely, what happens if we take the plunge? Already, we can benefit from a Professional Transition Project which is aimed at employees under certain seniority conditions. This one-year training allows you to maintain your status and rights as an employee and does not necessarily have to be related to the company's activity. If you want to remain discreet about your recovery, there are also distance training courses or evening classes. The Interuniversity Distance Education Federation lists a large part of the distance learning courses offered by universities throughout France, this already gives a good overview! If the desire is there but you don't know where to start, you can always consult a professional coach and work with him for a few sessions or take a look at the Bloom'r assistant and its online program which helps us ask ourselves the right questions about our work and our needs and gives us an action plan for the future.

Nib: BPB