How can I est. the number of potential health promotion jobs in my city?

August 15, 2016 5:26 AM

I live in a city of roughly half a million people, Glasgow (Scotland). I haven't worked in a long time due to being a caregiver in a relationship that's now ended. I have applied for and been given a place on a one-year Open University course (Certificate in Promoting Public Health). Is there a way to guesstimate the number of Glasgow-based junior health promotion jobs that come up in a year, or a way to describe this task so that I could outsource a couple of hours research to one of those sites where helpful freelancers might be a better job than me for an acceptable cost? It's a pretty important question to me so finding the answer would potentially be pretty valuable to me, before I get fully committed and start the course.

It would be a 20-25 hour a week commitment from October until June, meaning for that time I could only do part-time work and not apply for full-time jobs. Also there would be the opportunity cost that I could be doing a 20-25 hour job hunt instead of studying. I have concerns that Open University distance learning qualifications will always come a poor second to someone with a degree from a bricks and mortar university, and also that there may not be many jobs coming up in my city where this qualification would be a positive factor in getting me hired. Since I am in secure social housing rental accommodation, which I won't get kicked out of except for antisocial behaviour, I would be very reluctant to move to another city where I could only get a private rental or shared room in a flat.

posted by AuroraSky to Work & Money (3 answers total)

Best answer: You maybe could answer this question, but even if you did that would provide you with 0 useful information.

Does the Open University have job placement rates? A lot of things like that do, so asking their reps that question would be step one for me, and it would put up a lot of red flags if they don't.
posted by brainmouse at 7:00 AM on August 15, 2016

Best answer: I would call the local professional organization for people in the jobs you might want to apply for, and ask them how it's going and what the forecast is. I would contrast this with what is written in forums and websites for people who do this job. The professional organization will skew towards optimistic, the message board will skew pessimistic, and you can sort of average it out. I would also look at the jobs posting websites to see what is hiring now and what the descriptions look like, so you can gear your education towards that a little bit.
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:06 AM on August 15, 2016

Yes, this is the kind of question informational interviews are made for. Just call up your local health department (or other places you would like to work) and see if someone will talk to you. You want to talk to someone either in or who would supervise the kind of job you want. Offer to buy them coffee or come to their office, whatever is most convenient for them. I work in public health (in the US) and in my experience public health folks are very generous with their time for this sort of thing as we love to mentor new folks interested in or entering the field. I've been on both ends myself many times!
posted by john_snow at 9:22 AM on August 15, 2016