Getting into data science and NLP outside of university
I'm also nearly 40.

2 years ago I decided to change career paths from Engineering to "Data Science".

Despite having many years of Python experience I recognised that I didn't know or understand the latest technology or even the modern terms for things I did everyday.

Therefore I suggest the following:


Put your existing skills on a more formal basis using MOOC like DataCamp or Data Quest.  This will quickly teach you the relevant terms (so you know what to Google) and relatively recent practices.
Read.  Many great books available at low cost or even free, whether it's Python for Data Science or Intro to Sci-kit learn.  Try out the tutorials.  Read articles on Hacker News on the topic.
Practice.  Kaggle is interesting but I found following the tutorials from fast.ai better for real life use.  It's better to apply these skills to something you find interesting. E.g. build a chat bot that turns in the sprinklers in your garden.


After all of this, you'll realise there are opportunities in every business to practice your skills.  Some will use the term "Data Scientist" but I suspect most won't.

You didn't say what you did before, but I suspect if like me you subscribe to the following definition of Data Science then you'd already be there.

Data Science is the combination of Advance Computing Skills, Statistics and/or Maths and "Domain Knowledge".

What is domain knowledge?  Any subject that you know a lot about.  You could be radiologist in a hospital or fraud investigator in an insurance company.