Need advice - Online CAD/CAM

[jmp22684]

Hello!

I used to take drafting and CAD courses in Highschool and some college courses as well. In these I excelled to the point of getting awards in the school and no longer following the normal assignments: I would sit at a desk near the instructor and help him prepare course work. 

Then I got nervous that the field wouldn't be good long term and started second guessing my decisions, changed to accounting, then computer science, then integrated supply chain management, then got married and had a kid and life happened. My problem isn't finding something I enjoy, as its all so cool. I'm a computer nerd (you should see my studio), I'm an electronics geek, I'm a music nerd, I'm a math nerd... its hard to make a decision. I was also a music major at one point and my father pushed me towards this when I was younger. So for the past 10 years I have been comfortably self employed teaching music and playing out in a group that was always booked a year in advance. I always wanted to go back to school because I really wanted to finish an engineering degree which is where I should have stuck it out at the beginning. I never did because the price of school has sky rocketed and I was so busy between my students, the group and my family (I don't want to parent from a distance, I'm very hands on... and since I worked at home it was basically me and my boy!) Add to that the fact that we were just comfortable. I earned enough to support our family in a pretty good neighborhood and maintain a savings, there was no major event causing us to rock the boat and we just coasted along. Welp... until now. Unemployed over night and now I have time to think again. 

I'd like to complete my engineering degree; however, I need to support my family at the same time. I have auto immune issues that prevent me from picking up any normal work you could do, without a degree, that risks exposure. Not really interested in leaving behind my family.

I am trying to look at the bright side of this and rather than see myself as out of business I'd like to look at this as an opportunity to get back to something I truly enjoyed and begin the next chapter of our life. 

I obsessed over CAD. When I was taking those courses it was so much fun and it was effortless. I would stay up until 4am working on those projects.

I would like to find a competency based program such as those at excelsior, etc... that can give me either an associates or a certification to pickup an entry level CAD job via remote work if possible. 

I've been scouring the internet trying to find something and I am really unsure on where to start. This is when I found this forum and am hoping that someone here can help point me in the right direction. 

We are in a boat where I can coast by on savings for about 12 months through this global mess and at the end of that I need to be somehow employed. Hopefully remote work that doesn't require personal . 

It would be wonderful if it could be in a field I used to love so much.

I thought about just completing the program I started at the local college; however, with needing to wait until the semester starts and then completing the course required we would be dead in the water and unable to pay bills. Add to that needing to walk into a classroom with my condition would be a death sentence, but most people don't understand that and I don't want to come off as not being a "team player".

I am hoping to find a program that can keep up with me (if that makes sense) rather than me having to wait until the full semester is complete to prove I am ready to move along to the next step in my learning. Or whatever it would take to begin this work, I see many CAD jobs that don't require degrees, the problem is I have no work experience in the field outside of the classroom and feel I don't know what I don't know.

Thank you very much and I really appreciate any assistance in helping us move forward. 

Wow.... I wrote a book. There is my story and my goal.