Getting laid-off from your job can be tough, but it doesn't mean you have to struggle to find another job in that career. From grants to scholarships, there's something for everyone to take a step toward a new future.

Forty-year-old Ed Hearn is in a mid-life career change, albeit an unintended one.

"Last February I got laid off, and I was out of work for about three months," Hearn said.

Hearn worked as a service manager at a car dealership for more than five years, and what could've been a mid-life crisis has become a fortunate misfortune.

"Now I'm doing something that I really want to do," Hearn said.

While working at the car dealership, he volunteered for the Buckingham County Rescue Squad, all the while wanting to become a full-time paramedic. Several months ago, he was hired as an EMT at Davis Ambulance.

Central Virginia Community College Financial Aid Director Debbie Marshall sees a lot of laid-off workers, like Hearn, in the college's classrooms.

"Now they come back and want to be retrained," Marshall said.

Hearn, an EMT-Basic, enrolled this fall in CVCC's two year program to become a paramedic.

"The majority of our students are older adults, and most of them do receive financial aid," Marshall said.

Marshall says even adults can be eligible for Federal Pell Grants, which can provide more than $5,300 a year for both tuition and living expenses. State financial aid is also available. Marshall says income and size of the household are just two factors in receiving financial aid.

"Financial aid is not intended just for a certain segment of people. All students are elligible for some type of financial aid."

Plus, all students can apply for scholarships based on gender, where they live, or the discipline they're studying.

Hearn is getting tuition assistance from the volunteer rescue squad to help him transition from fixing cars, to fixing people.

"It's still diagnosing," Hearn said. "It's just we have to do it a lot quicker in an ambulance."

And Hearn says his new job is much more rewarding than his old one.

"You come back from a good call, meaning you really feel like you helped somebody and there's nothing like it," Hearn said.

Marshall says don't rule yourself out of getting financial aid before you apply. Plus, she showed us where you can search for millions of scholarships online. 

Experts say there are still a lot of secure jobs out there. Forbes.com ranked these jobs as the top 10 most secure. They are: Accountant, Computer Analyst, Environmental Scientist, Pharmacist, Physical Therapist, Lawyer, Physician, Registered Nurses, Speech Language, Pathologist and Teacher.

These were not ranked in any order, and are based on current market trends.

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