Explore & Discover

Role Description

Skills required

You’ll need:

• creativity
• the ability to work with garden design drawings
• organisational skills
• practical skills to work with a variety of tools, and possibly small plant machinery
• business skills, if you decide to become self-employed

What you'll do

Your day-to-day duties may include:

• discussing clients’ needs 
• working from plans made by garden designers or landscape architects
• ordering supplies
• preparing the ground or interior space
• turfing and seeding lawns
• planting and pruning trees and shrubs
• putting in new plants
• installing features like paving, paths, water features and rock gardens
• advising the client on how to look after the space
• providing on-going maintenance

Role Description

You may work for high street retailers, mail order companies or online sellers. You'll be responsible for one area like fashion, cosmetics, DIY or electronics. 

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• analysing and forecasting trends from consumer data
• attending trade fairs to find new products
• managing product quality and getting customer feedback
• negotiating prices, orders and delivery dates
• presenting collections to senior managers
• tracking sales figures, managing stock levels and keeping to budgets
• checking and reacting to competitor activities 
• adapting quickly to changing consumer behaviour

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

You'll need to be over 18 and hold a full car driving licence.

You can apply for a job as a trainee with a freight company or complete an LGV course with a private training provider. You'll also need a Certificate of Professional Competence (Driver CPC).

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

excellent driving skills and road safety knowledge

the ability to work alone and concentrate for long periods

a polite manner with customers

the ability to complete record sheets and paperwork accurately

3. What you'll do

You'll drive commercial vehicles over 7.5 tonnes, including articulated lorries, tankers, transporters and trailer wagons. You'll work from depots, distribution centres and warehouses, carrying goods all over the UK and overseas.

Apart from driving, your duties may include:

planning delivery schedules and routes with transport managers

supervising or helping to load and unload goods

making sure loads are safely secured

following traffic reports and changing your route if necessary

completing delivery paperwork and log books

You may also deal with basic maintenance, like oil, tyre and brake checks before and after journeys.

4. Salary

Starter: £18,500 to £22,000

Experienced: £23,000 to £28,000

Highly Experienced: £27,000 to £35,000

Overtime may be available.

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work up to 42 hours a week. Overtime may be available but there are strict laws about the amount of hours you can spend driving between rest breaks.

Most of your time would be spent on the road, and you would drive day and night in all weather conditions.

Overnight stays may be necessary.

6. Career path and progression

You could take further training and gain an ADR (Advisory Dangerous Goods by Road) Certificate to drive hazardous goods like toxic chemicals by tanker.

With experience, you could train to become an LGV instructor, freight transport planner or move into management.

Role Description

Skills required

You’ll need:

• an outgoing personality 
• excellent customer service skills 
• to work well under pressure 
• attention to detail

What you'll do

You’ll be responsible for serving customers and making up their orders. Your role is to make sure that customers enjoy their food and drink in a pleasant environment.

Your day-to-day duties might include:

• preparing the coffee shop ready for opening 
• taking customer orders and payments 
• grinding fresh coffee beans 
• preparing and serving sandwiches and cakes 
• cleaning and tidying work areas, equipment and coffee machines 
• creating displays of stock 
• doing stock checks and ordering new stock 
• cleaning and tidying the coffee shop before closing

Role Description

Entry requirements

There are no set requirements. You’ll need good computer skills to keep records systems up to date. You’ll also need to be good with numbers and able to work as part of a team.

Previous experience in stock control, retail or office admin would be helpful.

You could get into this job by doing a supply chain, retail or warehousing apprenticeship.

Skills required

You’ll need:

good communication skills
customer service skills
good time management
the ability to work quickly under pressure
a high level of attention to detail

What you'll do

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

processing orders
making sure paperwork is correctly filled out
checking stock levels and ordering new stock
updating stock information on computer systems
receiving deliveries
making sure orders are despatched on time
answering customer enquiries online, over the phone and face-to-face
carrying out spot checks and audits
Your job may also include other duties like forklift driving or serving customers over the counter.

You’ll work in places like shops, warehouses and distribution centres.

Salary

Starter: £13,500 to £18,000

Experienced: £20,000 to 23,000 (supervisors)

Highly Experienced: up to £30,000 (managers)

These figures are a guide.

Working hours, patterns and environment

You’re likely to work shifts if you’re in a warehouse or distribution centre. You’ll have more regular hours if you’re in a shop or other retail outlet.
 
You may have to work in low temperatures in some jobs, for example in a frozen food warehouse, but your employer will supply you with suitable clothing.

Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a stock supervisor or manager. At this level, you would lead a team, forecast stock levels and work closely with suppliers. 

You could also work as a retail buyer, looking at consumer trends and selecting which products your company will sell.

Role Description

Entry requirements

There are no set requirements but some employers may expect you to have a degree. Relevant subjects include:

advertising
media and communications
digital marketing
journalism
public relations
business management
You could get into this job without a degree if you have the skills and experience in areas like marketing, advertising or PR. 

You can do college courses in social media and business. 

You could also start as an assistant manager and work your way up. 

You’ll usually need some knowledge and experience of social media. To get experience you could:

manage your own social media profiles
volunteer to manage social media for a charitable organisation
ask to get involved in social media sites of the company you already work for
You’ll need excellent IT skills as you’ll be using social media software and tools. You’ll also need knowledge of search engine optimisation (SEO) methods and ‘key’ or ‘searched for’ words to drive more users to your social media site.

Experience of graphic design and digital editing software can help. You can use these skills to make your social media posts better by adding videos, photos and infographics.

You could get into this job through a creative and digital media apprenticeship.

iCould has a video interview with a social media assistant.

Skills required

You’ll need:

an eye for detail and the ability to work accurately
the ability to deal with more than one task at a time
creativity
presentation skills
an analytical approach to data
writing skills

What you'll do

You’ll monitor and upload content to sites like:

Facebook and Twitter
Instagram and Pinterest
YouTube and Vine
Your day-to-day duties may include:

updating social media sites
writing blogs, articles and posts
responding to social media posts and developing discussions
checking online for company mentions and customer feedback
searching for interesting posts, news and articles to attract site visitors
overseeing competitions and campaigns promoting your company
taking part in conferences and group chat relevant to your industry or company
educating other staff on social media use
promoting social media use within your company
developing strategies to increase your audience
using social media tools like Hootsuite, TweetDeck or Buffer to manage multiple sites
using web tracking tools like Google Analytics, Social Report or Bitly

Salary

Starter: £23,000

Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

Highly Experienced: £75,000 (head social media manager)

These figures are a guide.

Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work normal office hours, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. You may need to work evenings and weekends when working on a campaign or with deadlines.

If you’re freelance, you may work longer hours depending on the needs of your clients and the amount of work you take on.

You’ll be based in an office and spend a lot of time working on a computer. You may also attend meetings and make presentations about your work to clients or colleagues.

Career path and progression

With experience, you could move into managing social media for larger companies or progress to a senior or head social media manager job.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but it’s common to have a qualification in a relevant subject like:

logistics

international transport

supply chain management

transport management

geography

You could also start in a more junior role like transport clerk and work your way up.

Skills for Logistics and the The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT UK) have more information about careers in supply chain management.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

planning and organisational skills

the ability to motivate and lead a team

spoken and written communication skills

problem-solving and maths skills

good geographical knowledge

If your employer operates overseas it may be useful to speak a foreign language.

3. What you'll do

Supply chains are made up of different operations, from forecasting trends and buying through to transport and distribution. 

Depending on which part of the supply chain you're in, your day-to-day tasks may include:

working with procurement managers and buyers to select products that are in demand and will sell

negotiating and managing contracts with suppliers

planning the best way to get goods from suppliers to distribution centres and retailers

tracking shipments and stock levels using computer software

working with retailers to make sure they receive their goods on time and in the right condition

looking at ways to improve supply chain networks

monitoring overall performance to make sure targets are met

preparing forecasts and inventories

recruiting, training and managing a team of supply chain staff

You might also be involved in brand and marketing planning.

4. Salary

Starter: £20,000 to £25,000

Experienced: £25,000 and £45,000

Highly Experienced: Up to £60,000

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. You may work evenings and weekends on a rota basis, or be available on-call to deal with emergencies. Some companies run 24-hour operations involving shift work.

You’ll usually be office-based but would travel to meet clients. This could include travel overseas.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could progress to senior planning jobs and consultancy work.

Role Description

Your day-to-day duties could include:

• planning where to put insulation 
• deciding what materials to use for a particular job 
• preparing and cleaning surfaces to be insulated
• measuring and cutting insulation materials to size
• fitting insulation using clips, adhesives or cement
• sealing the work area after completing an installation