What about appling to teach adults? At a University, or an agency that helps immigrants learn English,etc?

Would private school teaching be an option for her? If it's anything like here, it might pay less (a LOT less), but she might be able to shop around and find a school that aligns better with her philosophy of teaching.

Or what about working in a college--even if she weren't qualified to be a full professor, there are jobs. And working at a college/university she'd probably have the added benefit of going for higher education free or at a reduced rate.

Private tutoring--does Canada have the private firms that offer one-on-one help like America does?

Has she considered getting back into writing? Either as a journalist, or working for a publishing house, or maybe even writing her own book

It's really hard, though for anyone to advise another about job choice. Best advice you can give her is to really sit down and identify her strengths and passions, and then find a way to make them pay. She's really going to have to do this for herself, I'm afraid.

Good ideas, ladies. Azzalea, you're right that it's very hard to advise others about their career choices. I'm going to do just what you say about identifying her strengths and passions and help her go from there. She was asking for some help, but basically, I think she just needs a "kick-start" out of her mental rut.. and she will be able to go from there.

Could she teach her skills on how to write articles, look for information, etc to HS/College kids??? Maybe not at the schools, but with the backing of the media and even advertisers? Away from school/gov rules, but with some controls in place. There are a lot of areas to cover--news, social, cooking, advice and someone needs to teach and encourage the up and coming generation. Another small business to start up.

In my neck of the woods, there are tons of public-policy and nonprofit institutions, and when journalists I know decide that newspapers and magazines aren't doing it for them anymore (or they decide to take company buyouts in this economy!), they frequently go to those institutions, where they put their "beat" knowledge and writing skills to very good use again in doing research and writing reports!

Or they're moving to online sites, some of which pay, some of which don't. I'm sure that being a former journalist, she's still in the loop.

Also, regarding teaching, is there an equivalent there of "Teach for America"? Here in the U.S., they seem to have some really exuberant teachers, mostly young, but enthusiastic.

Grant writing can also be lucrative and she can begin to develop her contacts and skills while she is still employed as a teacher.

Susan, my brother's girlfriend coaches people in work choices.
She does it for people who have been down-sized, or are looking for something different, and for high-school kids who want to know what they would be best suited for, to take university courses.

My niece likes kids and through the help that K gave her, she's now in university majoring in Social work.

I can give you more information, if you like. K lives in Mississauga.

Perhaps it's the grade level that's got her down.

After DH retired he substituted at our local high school and once in a while in a grammar school. He quickly decided he only wanted to work at the HS level.

Lower grade teachers are in one classroom with the same twenty-some children all day. HS teachers have adult contact with other teachers, and the classes change from one period to another.

DH's happiest year was co-teaching an oversized HS journalism class. There were too many students for a single teacher, but not enough to hire a second. The department head solved the problem by hiring my MSJ non-certified-teacher husband to 'aid' the designated J-teacher.

If your friend can learn fast and communicate clearly she'd be an asset in ANY field.

Sue may be right - she always gives good advice, imho!

My SIL is a teacher who started out with 2nd graders. She went nuts teaching them for 2 years, was ready to quit and be a waitress, but she decided to go back and get some post graduate credits in math. She switched to teaching math to 5 & 6th graders - she LOVES it!