No, not what you're thinking ;-)
I am now in my third week of ER and am enjoying it immensely. As a (very generous) departing gesture, my former employer has offered to pay for a Master's degree in Project Management to give me a qualification commensurate with the level of experience I gained while under their employ. The course is mostly distance mode delivery and much of the material I am familiar with, so I am not expecting the course to ground me or to take up too much of my time. I am debating as to whether to go ahead with it or not.
On the against side, it is not as though I really need such a qualification if I am not seeking employment any time soon, so the frugal voice in my head says don't waste my employer's money on something I don't need. Also, while my employer is paying for the course fees (over $20K!), I am up for all the texts. This will likely cost me around $2K, which is comes out of my stache. Finally, I do have bitsa qualifications (associate diploma in electronics, part bachelor's degree in IT, graduate diploma in management, certified project manager, etc), which potential employers tell me is sufficient when coupled with my experience, for the next year at most however.
On the for side, I have spent most of my adult life kicking my own butt for not going to uni (college) when I was young, even though it hasn't really impacted me in my career progression to date. This course would satisfy my lifelong desire to have such a qualification, for which I do not deny that there is a bit of vanity involved. Then there's the 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' whereby this is a fantastic opportunity to get an academic qualification that could open other academic doors should I choose to further my education in other fields. Finally, being offered this course will keep myself current in my profession for another year, which seems like a good back up plan should ER not pan out as I expected, either financially or mentally. A positive side effect of this is that some of my doubting family members now think that by doing the course I haven't just "given up" on society and gone feral on them.
At this stage, I am erring on the side of doing the course anyway and making my electives as broad as possible such that it opens the door for further academic study as mentioned before.
Any thoughts on what else I should consider?