{"id":8114,"date":"2018-04-02T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T09:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=8114"},"modified":"2018-04-02T09:00:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T09:00:17","slug":"new-psychology-career-in-my-40s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/arts-social-sciences\/psychology\/new-psychology-career-in-my-40s\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering psychology led Andrew to a new career"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"psychology\"

Dr Andrew Maleknia used the OU as a springboard to a new career in Psychology<\/p><\/div>\n

Growing up in North London, Andrew, 49, didn\u2019t enjoy the academic side of school and left at 16 with 11 O-Levels.\u00a0 After a spell in retail and a long career in IT, he made a dramatic change to his working life. After a family bereavement opened up the world of psychology to him, he decided to switch career paths in his 40s.<\/em><\/p>\n

Awakening a passion for psychology<\/h2>\n

Rising through the ranks in his first job after school, Andrew was soon a branch manager for a jewellery store, but admits he was thinking \u201cnow what?\u201d as he realised a retail career \u2013 despite his early success – just wasn\u2019t for him.\u00a0 He took up study and completed a Business Studies degree which enabled him to move into a corporate IT role.<\/p>\n

Andrew says: \u201cI had a wonderful salary, and worked in IT for nearly 15 years, but I didn\u2019t feel fulfilled. I wasn\u2019t making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

A family bereavement was the catalyst for change.\u00a0 His wife\u2019s mother passed away from cancer and he did everything he could to support his wife and help her through her grief.\u00a0 He volunteered for Cruse Bereavement<\/a> charity, and the short course he completed with them fascinated him, awakening a new passion for psychology.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t easy \u2013 but the OU was flexible<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Andrew found a new drive to forge a career in psychology, but in order to do so he had to obtain Graduate Basis for Registration, by taking a conversion course which is approved by the British Psychological Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Giving up work to study wasn\u2019t an option so he looked to the OU, which produces more psychology graduates than any other UK university. The Postgraduate Diploma fitted the bill exactly and amazingly, he was able to complete it in ten months.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would wake up at 4am to study every morning, and spend my weekends doing my OU work,\u201d says Andrew.\u00a0 \u201cI felt so determined, and online study worked brilliantly for me.\u00a0 The process was seamless, and all of the tutorials, course materials and resources were good.\u00a0 The OU way to learn made life easier for me, as I could fit it in with my busy schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OU way to learn made life easier for me, as I could fit it in with my busy schedule.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OU study opened up a new career path<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Photograph

Andrew Maleknia completed a Postgraduate Diploma with The Open University in Psychology in less than 10 months whilst working full time passing with flying colours<\/p><\/div>\n

Andrew went on to do a Masters in Health Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University, which was part distance learning, and then a Doctorate in Counselling Psychology with Wolverhampton University, which was full time and meant he then gave up his job in IT.<\/p>\n

But it was worth it and he\u2019s now working in the field he loves both in the NHS and privately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m now a counselling psychologist, and I work at an inpatient unit for the NHS helping people with varieties of difficulties such dementia, and those in mental health crisis situations. I also have a private practise too. It\u2019s extremely rewarding; but if it wasn\u2019t for the OU I wouldn\u2019t have been able to take this path.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanging my career in my 40s was one of the toughest decisions I ever made but I am so glad I did it. I would encourage everyone to follow their passion \u2013 you just need determination to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in North London, Andrew, 49, didn\u2019t enjoy the academic side of school and left at 16 with 11 O-Levels.\u00a0 After a spell in retail and a long career in IT, he made a dramatic change to his working life. After a family bereavement opened up the world of psychology to him, he decided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[388,1759,1849],"class_list":["post-8114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-student-stories","tag-case-study","tag-postgraduate","tag-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}