If someone who is maturations enough but skills are outdated and they’ve chosen to go back to school, do ppl judge them or make fun of them which they should act like their ages?
If someone who is maturations enough but skills are outdated and they’ve chosen to go back to school, do ppl judge them or make fun of them which they should act like their ages?
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I had a lot of people in their 30s in business school and they formed their own group in the class but were generally accepted.
No not at all. I studied history, the back rows of our lectures were often filled with the elderly from the University Town where I studied, that simply enjoyed listening in.
I sort of appreciated that, when retired you’d better go to university lectures and learn something new than turning into this sour and bitter old person living in a world that becomes increasingly smaller. And they would buy you free coffee during the break sometimes.
Depends, I’ve finished my engineering degree (I’ve started as a 19 y.o.) earlier this month, I’m 45 y.o. I wasn’t the oldest student who passed final exam that week.
I was the oldest student for the courses I was assigned. Students half my age started with some jokes, but they changed their attitude after they saw the difference in experience (i.e. creating backups procedures vs. creating backups and testing recovery procedures).
There are people in their 30s and 40s who received BSc or engineering degree in their 20s and return for masters degree, with focus on technologies and areas that weren’t that important in 2000s, like AI, cybersecurity or cloud. This pretty normal, and nobody judges them.
There is similar case for finishing high-school. Some organizations require team leaders to be at least high-school graduates. My cousin’s husband dropped out of high-school in his teens, and finished it, remotely, in his 40s, during COVID pandemics. No body made fun of it, most of students did it as a job requirement.
If this is truly what you want and need, go for it without hesitation. I’ve always admired people who never stop learning. Ppl talk lots ofshit. Who cares what others say?
I think it is the sign of the best character, to always be willing to learn, grow and be wiser than before.
I don’t know where you’re from, but where I’m from there’s often at least one student in every engineering class that is in their late 30s or older. Also often quite a few who are in their late 20s to early 30s.
Here in Denmark we have adult secondary schools, for people who didn’t do a high school equivalent when they were younger (like if you started working, trade school or whatever), so it’s very normal to see middle aged people in some of these offers. Then with higher education, it’s maybe not as common, but at the same time pretty ‘normal’ to see people who are a bit older. When I did my bachelor the oldest person in the same program was in his early 50s, and we had quite a few people who were late 20s-mid 30s
Hard to say because I haven’t seen anyone that age when I was studying. Maybe they go to private universities.
Heck no. We have an established further education system. Classes are available for everything you can think of and are aimed at adults. Here’s a link to the courses on offer at my local one. https://www.suffolk.ac.uk/study-with-us/adult-professional/
I completed my masters in my late thirties. I didn’t experience any judgment, so if I was judged, it was behind my back.
Learning and being able to learn and go to school at any point in your life is a core european value, age doesn’t play any part in it. Will you by judged by younger people? Perhaps. Should you care at such an age when you need to learn/renew new skills and/or increase your qualifications? Absolutely not.
When I went to uni, half my class was middle aged and training tp go into another career. You’ll be fine.
Universities has many kind of students. But for what I remember, there are groups and they don’t mix much. There are the young students, and there are the older students. Exceptions happen, of course.
We have institute for advanced studies at universities, where you can get additional education on new speciality or courses on existing one.
Those one viewed positively, sometimes also mandatory for some professions.
Returning to school is not practiced in mass at all. I think it woud be viewed like this person having a disability, maybe mental nature one
You mean to go back to college?
When I changed field, I was worried about it. I was 29 and felt lonely, you know why?
Because 60% were18 years old, 40% were 50 years old! and me alone in between!
So… no, they are a TONE of older people. No one never made fun of us, they would call us “the mamas” (we were all women, they all had kids and I was pregnant) and would ask us advices.
I’m 35 in my second year of Audiovisual Commutations. My classmates are 19. Everyone is super friendly and welcoming to me, but I have noticed they don’t invite me to join them for social events (not that I would go party all night anyway). Also I’ve noticed that the teachers treat me better than they do the other students, I guess they find me more relatable.
Not at all. I started college at 30. There were people of all ages there. Some people just starting out, others adding on to their degrees.
When I was in my late teens, we had a mature student on our course, a 36 year old single mother. We were all proud and extremely protective of her. It’s great that you want to work for a better future.
I’m almost 50 and back in college to learn a new industry. Spent all my adult life in I.T and now learning art, design and wood/metal crafting. And there are a dozen others in my classes over the age of 30.
I recently visited a college and watched a performance at the theater, performed by students of that college in acting courses. One thing I noticed is that many of the performers had a wedding ring on their hand. So, it’s common.
It’s encouraged. We even have subsidies for ‘life long development’ to keep people’s skills up to date with the job market. Universities offer almost every study in part time-version especially suited to combine studying with a part time job.
Not at all, in Denmark the government supports people financially if they further their education, they do the same thing if people take a new education.
So it’s completely normal in Denmark and I haven’t yet experienced anyone saying anything negative about it.
Older people, at my university at least, are respected, we talk with them like with any other student. There’s this incredible guy in his 40s that has a state job and decided to study again, he’s funny and much wiser than any of us 20 y.o idiots
Most people would actually respect that here, whether it’s going to university or college, or even starting an apprenticeship later in life.
Some people will of course look down on them, but those are the sort of “do you think you’re better than me?” types.
Can’t speak for Europe, as I’ve only done university in the U.S. but in the U.S. I had alot of non-traditional students in my program – especially ones that were ex-military who wanted to take advantage of their GI bill (Free tuition), or ones who already had work experience in an industry but are trying to switch to a different one or maybe want to increase their earning potential.
I’ve also noticed most older students in general seem to participate alot more in class, pay attention, and are pretty diligent in getting their classwork done. Probably on virtue of coming in with more life experience and goals in pursuing higher education. Alot of first-year college students that are coming straight out of high school, especially ones that are only really in uni because they were pushed to go by their parents or only want to party, don’t have that.
Best place to learn skills are on the job. Sell yourself to your employer, let them know you are quick to learn and you want to learn something new, few employers will turn you away