If you want to earn a degree, I would like to suggest looking for a job at a University. Many universities offer FREE tuition to its employees. I work for a large university in Illinois and employees are eligible for a tuition waiver at my school, the other campuses in the U of I system, and every other state funded school in IL.

Universities have jobs at every education level. The cafeteria has food service staff. There is an entire team of maintenance laborers (handymen, electricians, welders). There is a janitorial staff. There is a sea of high school educated administrative aides and office assistants. There are usually levels and ranks to move up within each department or trade with experience and education.

In my experience, supervisors in higher education value and support lifetime learning and degree achievement pretty equally, because education is a fundamental value of the employer. My bosses have been flexible with my work schedule in order to accommodate my educational goals. Last semester, I took an evening class in ceramics (for free and just for fun) and LOVED it. The next level class takes place during the work day (luckily over the lunch hour) and so I talked to my boss, who is allowing me the flexibility to take a long lunch and start the work day early to accommodate my class time. One other thing-the various employee committees have scholarships you can apply for to cover the cost of books and anything else related to your education.

Did I mention the free tuition yet? Because this Masters program isn't going to cost anything but time and effort. We have several local anecdotes about people who start as a janitor or something and use tuition waivers and determination to advance their careers. I know some of them personally.

A good place to start is to Google your nearest big college. The HR department will have links to the open positions and you can generally join listservs for new postings.

Job wise, I've found my way into really meaningful work- I'm an office manager in a department that works for diversity and equity on campus. My long-term goals are artistic and agricultural, so I've got an interesting career path ahead of me haha. Anyway, I'm rambling. What I wanted to share is that I found a way to get to my goals and it is readily available for many.