Industry Sectors

Role Description

Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent communication skills
• the ability to work with children and their families in a sensitive and positive way
• creativity and imagination for game playing 
• planning and organisational skills
• IT skills

What you'll do

Your day-to-day tasks will include:

• planning and supervising activities like arts and crafts, music and cooking
• helping children to learn numeracy and language skills through games
• taking children on outings
• feeding and changing babies
• observing children and making notes to write reports
• making sure children are safe and well
• With experience, you could become a key worker for one or more children. You'll monitor their progress and share information about their development with parents or carers.

Role Training

• The Department for Education (DfE) has information on all approved childcare qualifications.
• If you don’t have a level 2 qualification, you can start out by working as a nursery assistant where you’ll be supervised by more experienced staff. This could be a paid job or through volunteering. You could then train while you work.
• You may also find it useful to have a level 2 qualification in English and maths which includes functional skills.
• You could get into this career through an apprenticeship.
• You'll also need an enhanced background check which your employer will arrange for you.
• You'll find information on careers and courses in childcare from:
• Pre-school Learning Alliance
• Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY)
• National Day Nurseries Association
• Foundation Years has information about early years education and childcare.

As an experienced nursery worker you could specialise in working with children with learning difficulties, physical difficulties or mental health problems. 

You could also take a level 3 early years educator qualification to progress to room leader, senior nursery worker or centre manager.

You could also study towards a higher education qualification in early years or child development. You could then move into management or early years teaching.

Role Description

Entry requirements

There are no set requirements. You’ll be expected to have relevant office skills, like email, using the internet and computer packages like Excel. 

Good maths skills are important, and some employers may also expect you to have GCSEs (A* to C), or equivalent.

Experience in payroll isn’t always essential, but a background in bookkeeping and accounts could help improve your job prospects. 

The International Association of Book-keepers (IAB) and The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) offer introductory courses in bookkeeping and payroll.

You could also get into this job through an apprenticeship.

Skills required

You’ll need:

confidence with numbers
good spoken and written communication skills
a high level of accuracy and attention to detail
good organisational and time management skills

What you'll do

You’ll work in a company’s accounts team, or for a payroll bureau that provides payroll services for other companies. You may work to strict payment deadlines.

Your day-to-day duties will usually include:

checking how many hours employees have worked
calculating and issuing pay by cash, cheque or electronic transfer
deducting tax and national insurance payments
processing holiday, sick and maternity pay, and expenses
calculating overtime, shift payments and pay increases
answering staff queries about timesheets or pay slips
issuing P45s and other tax forms
You may also work with your company’s human resources department, and be expected to do general administrative work like filing, photocopying and typing.

Salary

Starter: £15,000 to £18,000

Experienced: £20,000 to £26,000

Highly Experienced: £28,000

These figures are a guide.

Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Part-time and temporary work are available.

You’ll usually be based in an office, and spend most of your time working at a computer.

Career path and progression

With experience, you could progress to payroll supervisor or manager.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) in English and maths will help. 

Office experience could also help you get a job.

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• IT skills
• typing accuracy and speed
• efficient time management skills

3. What you'll do

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• entering personal details of customers into a database
• entering information for classified adverts in a newspaper
• transferring paper-based market research results
• updating patients' medical records
• processing invoices

4. Salary

Starter: £12,000 to £15,000

Experienced: £16,000 to £20,000

Highly Experienced: £21,000 to £25,000

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

You'll spend most of your time at a computer in an office.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a su

Role Description

You could work in different areas, including:

Community pharmacy

• dispensing medicines in a high street or supermarket pharmacy
• giving healthcare advice about prescription and over-the-counter medicines
• advising on drug dosages and risks 
• running screening programmes for diabetes, cholesterol or blood pressure 
• visiting care homes to advise on the use and storage of medications
• ordering and controlling stock
• running a business, including supervising and training staff

Hospital pharmacy:

• working with doctors and nurses and other healthcare staff
• producing medicines when ready-made ones aren’t available, for example, cancer treatments
• buying, quality testing and distributing medicines throughout the hospital
• visiting wards and patients to talk about medicines and dosages
• dispensing medicines for patients being discharged from hospital
• supervising trainees and junior pharmacists

Local NHS service:

• giving advice to GPs and nurses on how to choose and prescribe medicines
• running GP practice clinics
• Education or industry:
• doing research into new medicines
• running clinical trials

In all of the above roles, you'll observe high standards of security and confidentiality.

Role Training

You'll need to do a:

4-year Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree approved by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

1-year pre-registration training course in a pharmacy

registration exam

If you don't have the qualifications to get onto an MPharm degree, you could do a 2-year pharmacy foundation degree. You could then take a job as a pharmacy assistant or technician and apply for the MPharm degree directly into year two. 

If you don't have science A levels, you could do a 5 year course at a few universities.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but you’ll need a good level of general education. You'll also need a working knowledge of computer software and hardware.

A college course in computing or IT support, and experience in customer service, will help. 

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

If you work with young people or vulnerable adults, you’ll need clearance from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent customer service skills
• the ability to explain technical issues to non-technical users
• analysis and problem-solving skills
• the ability to prioritise and manage tasks

3. What you'll do

You may work in-house with an organisation’s staff, students or customers. You may also work in a call centre advising the public by phone, email or online chat.

In some roles, you’ll be responsible for telephony and audio-visual equipment as well as IT systems.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• communicating with computer users to find and fix problems 
• tracking work in progress and recording issues and solutions 
• updating online knowledge banks
• servicing and fixing equipment, including printers, projectors and networks
• setting up new equipment and upgrading existing systems
• training people on new systems, face-to-face and online

4. Salary

Starter: £16,000 to £22,000

Experienced: £22,000 to £24,000

Highly Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 35 to 40 hours a week. You may have to work shifts, including evenings and weekends.

You'll work in an office and spend a lot of your time at a computer.

You may have to travel to different sites to help users. A driving licence may be required.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could move into a supervisory or management role.

With training, you could move into network engineering, database administration, business or systems analysis, IT security, IT project management, training or technical sales.

Role Description

Entry requirements

There are no set qualifications but you'll usually need:

basic English and maths skills
good eyesight and colour-normal vision
a good driving record and the correct licence
You may need to be over 21 and have held a full driving licence for at least 12 months.

Many vans are less than 3,500kg. If you drive vehicles between 3,500kg and 7,000kg, you may need further training depending on when you passed your driving test.

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

Skills required

You'll need:

excellent practical driving skills
the ability to work quickly and to tight deadlines
lifting and carrying skills
the ability to complete record sheets and paperwork

What you'll do

You may deliver parcels, letters and documents, groceries, furniture or equipment. This could be for postal or courier services, supermarkets or retailers. Your vehicle could vary in size, depending on the load and your licence.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

collecting goods from a depot, warehouse or pick-up point
loading the vehicle in an order that matches the deliveries you'll make
planning the route
greeting customers, getting signatures and giving invoices when you deliver
recording mileage and fuel you buy
updating delivery records
returning undelivered items

Salary

Starter: £14,000

Experienced: £20,000

Highly Experienced: up to £27,000

Some employers offer bonuses for attendance and for reaching work targets.

These figures are a guide.

Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work between 36 and 48 hours a week, including evenings and weekends. Some courier companies may expect you to drive through the night.

For safety reasons there are legal limits on drivers' hours, depending on the type of vehicle.

For some jobs, you'll be given a uniform and specialist clothing.

The job is physically demanding.

Career path and progression

With experience, you could complete training for a large goods vehicle (LGV) licence for opportunities in freight transport and tanker driving.

If you take specialist training, like defensive driving and personal security, you could drive vehicles containing cash and valuable items. You'd also usually need a Security Industry Association (SIA) licence for this.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

You'll need a level 3 electrical or electro-technical qualification. You'll need to complete this qualification while you're working in a related job. 

A common way to get into this job is through an apprenticeship. An apprenticeship will give you a level 3 qualification.

Taking a level 1 or level 2 qualification in electrical installation may help you to find an apprenticeship or get a trainee position.

Electrical Careers has more information on how to become an electrician.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

practical skills

the ability to follow technical drawings, building plans and wiring diagrams

the ability to work carefully, methodically and safely

planning and organisational skills

problem-solving skills

3. What you'll do

You'll work in range of areas, from bringing power to people's homes to big engineering projects. You may also work with renewable technology, like wind turbines, 'smart' heating systems and solar power.

Your work will depend on the type of electrician you are:

installation electrician - installing power systems, lighting, fire protection, security and data-network systems in all types of buildings

maintenance electrician - checking systems to make sure they're working efficiently and safely

electrotechnical panel builder - making and installing control panels to operate the electrical systems inside buildings

machine repair and rewind electrician - fixing and maintaining electrical motors and transformers

highway systems electrician - installing and maintaining street lighting and traffic management systems

You may also supervise other people in a team.

4. Salary

Starter: £18,000 to £23,000

Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

Highly Experienced: Up to £42,000

You could get bonuses and overtime pay. There are national rates for travelling time, travel expenses and accommodation costs.

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 30 to 40 hours, Monday to Friday. You may work shifts or be on call.

You may have to travel between jobs and work away from home.

You may have to work around other trades. You may have to work in all weathers, in cramped spaces or at height.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could move into design engineering, site or project management, consultancy work or training.

You could also set up your own business.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

• You may find it useful to have GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) in English and maths.
• Employers also value experience, which you could get by temporary work or volunteering.
• Getting a qualification in reception skills or business and administration may also be helpful.
• You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.
• You may need a background check with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent spoken and written communication skills
• the ability to use office equipment like computers, photocopiers and fax machines
• organisational skills

3. What you'll do

You may work in the reception area of offices, hotels, sports centres, hospitals or health centres.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• greeting visitors and directing them to the correct person or department
• managing the visitors book and giving out security passes
• answering enquiries in person, by phone and email
• managing a room booking system and keeping rooms tidy
• dealing with incoming and outgoing post and deliveries
• arranging appointments and updating records on databases
• taking payments and handling invoices

4. Salary

Starter: £12,000 to £15,000

Experienced: £16,000 to £18,000

Highly Experienced: £21,000

Salaries vary and may be higher in some city centre offices.

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

If you're based in an office you'll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

In hotels, restaurants and sports centres, you'll probably work a shift system that includes weekends.

In hospitals and health centres, you're also likely to work some early and late shifts.

6. Career path and progression

With training and experience, you could move into a senior receptionist or personal assistant (PA) role. 

In a GP surgery or health centre, you could train to become a medical secretary or a practice manager.