Mature career change

[Dr Jekyll]

There's a report in the Sunday Times about a 69 year old hoping to retrain as a doctor.

but also


I've also heard of people retraining in law in their 50s and 60s. What's the most extreme example of a geriatric career changer? What kind of things are vaguely plausible to get into on the wrong side of middle age?

[Countdown]

Is he retraining because he genuinely wants to start on a Doctor career path (i.e. PRHO/SHO/Registrar/Consultant) or just because it's on his bucket list?

If the latter then it's fully understandable - ATPL is my personal ambition

[Dr Jekyll]

I suspect the latter. He reckons that once he's qualified he'll have 10 years before he's less healthy than the patients, which doesn't give much time to enjoy senior career levels.

[Countdown]

Ah well - that's understandable.


One of my former bosses qualified as a Lawyer. Not a massive change from Accountancy tbh Most people I know who have retired seem to spend more time travelling the world rather than any new career paths. And posting about it on Facebook, the gits

[N Dentressangle]

Dr Jekyll said:

I suspect the latter. He reckons that once he's qualified he'll have 10 years before he's less healthy than the patients, which doesn't give much time to enjoy senior career levels.

As long as he's funding his own training at the true cost, then that's fine, although you could still argue it's a waste of a much sought after place. It costs around £18k a year to train a doctor at u/g level for five years, then two years as a junior before you're much use to anyone.

He would be at least 76 before he finishes these initial stages of training, with very few useful years of work ahead. I wouldn't want him cannulating me.