If you are looking to change career paths then you may need to get some experience in the industry before you start applying for jobs. This may be difficult as no one will give you a job without experience but you cannot get experience without doing the job. Often the only way to overcome this is to do voluntary work.

 It may be that your potential employer is looking for someone with the relevant qualifications but they will often favour a candidate if they have experience in the same or similar job role as what is being advertised as it may mean they have to spend less time training them, which can be costly.

For some people, leaving an employed job to take up voluntary work to gain experience is simply not an option but you could always look in to doing voluntary work at weekends or in the evening. You may be able to go into an apprenticeship to train for a new job. There is no upper age limit for apprenticeships but funding is slightly different so it is worth looking in to exactly how it works before taking the plunge. You may feel like you are taking a step back but often you have to do this in order to move forward.