Explore & Discover

Role Description

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need experience as a training officer. 

A degree or postgraduate qualification in business studies, human resources or communications might be useful.

Other qualifications which may help are:

training qualifications offered by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
qualifications in teaching or lecturing in further education (FE)
skills assessor or verifier awards
You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

Skills required

You’ll need:

the ability to relate to staff at all levels
excellent communication and negotiating skills
the ability to coach people and give constructive feedback
presentation skills
IT skills

What you'll do

You’ll design and coordinate training that covers your organisation's present and future needs.

Your day-to-day duties could include:

identifying priorities and drawing up training plans
producing training materials
working with external providers to develop specialist courses
managing and leading a team
updating training records
writing reports, keeping records, and working within budgetsmaking sure training is cost-effective
In a smaller organisation you may also deliver some of the training.

Salary

Starter: £18,000 to £22,000

Experienced: £30,000 to £40,000

Highly Experienced: £45,000 or more

These figures are a guide

Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. You may need to be flexible, to cover things like residential courses or workshops, or work shifts.

You’ll be office-based, but may travel between company sites or to training venues like hotels or conference centres.

Career path and progression

With experience and contacts, you could become a freelance trainer or consultant.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set entry requirements, but some employers may ask for a good standard of general education.

Some employers may prefer you to have previous experience on a production line, and forklift training could be useful for some jobs.

You may have to take a test to assess your practical skills.

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

• good practical skills 
• the ability to work quickly and methodically 
• the ability to concentrate while doing repetitive tasks 
• the ability to follow instructions

3. What you'll do

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• measuring, grading and feeding batches of raw materials into production machinery 
• operating production line equipment, like a conveyor line in a canning factory 
• assembling goods on a production line, like fitting circuit boards into computers 
• reporting equipment faults to maintenance staff 
• finishing products, for example applying protective coatings
• monitoring the production process and carrying out basic testing and quality checks 
• storing goods and raw materials in the factory or warehouse 
• using lifting equipment and forklift trucks 
• packing goods ready for shipment
• cleaning and maintaining work areas and machinery

You’ll usually work as part of a team under the supervision of a shift leader, carrying out several tasks within the same shift.

4. Salary

Starter: £14,000 to £17,000

Experienced: £18,000 to £20,000 

You may get extra payments for unsocial shifts and overtime, and productivity bonuses.

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually cover a variety of shifts, including days, nights and weekends. Overtime is often available.

You’ll mainly work in a factory on a production line. You may spend a lot of your time standing while operating machinery, or sitting at a workbench or assembly line.

You’ll usually wear protective clothing, like overalls and safety shoes.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could be promoted to shift supervisor or move into quality control.

Role Description

You might work in a supermarket, a department store, a garden centre, a small independent shop or one that's part of a chain. You'll be:

• serving and advising customers
• arranging goods in displays and on shelves
• rotating and replacing stock
• promoting extra products
• taking cash and card payments and making sure the till balances
• dealing with returns
• meeting sales targets

Role Description

You'll need:

• the ability to inspire and motivate
• the ability to manage classes and deal with challenging behaviour
• creativity to design activities and materials
• IT, organisational and planning skills​​
  

What you'll do

Most teaching jobs are in state schools and academies, but you could also work in independent schools, pupil referral units and hospitals. You could also register with an agency to provide ‘supply’ cover for other teachers. 

You'll teach at key stage 3 (ages 11 to 14) and key stage 4 (ages 15 to 16). You may also teach in a sixth form (ages 16 to 19).

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• planning and preparing lessons
• teaching your specialist subject
• creating a safe learning environment
• setting and marking essays and exams
• checking students’ progress
• developing new courses and teaching materials
• classroom administration and record keeping
• attending meetings and training courses

Role Description

Skills required

You'll need:

• the ability to remain calm under pressure
• the ability to memorise orders
• numeracy skills

What you'll do

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• greeting customers as they arrive and showing them to their table
• giving out menus and taking orders for food and drink
• serving food and drinks
• dealing with bill payments
• making sure tables are clean and tidy
• You'll also be on hand to answer any questions and make sure that customers enjoy their experience.

In formal restaurants your work may include silver service (plating the items of a meal at the table). You'll usually work in a team under the supervision of a head waiter or waitress, known as the maître d’.

You could also specialise in work as a wine waiter or waitress, called a sommelier.

Role Description

You’ll work in one of the following roles:

Labourer – preparing the site, putting up rails and safety screens, laying dustsheets and separating out re-usable building materials after demolition 

Mattockman or Mattockwoman – stripping out fittings, removing doors and windows, dismantling roof structures 

Topman or Topwoman – does all the tasks of the others as well as cutting steel framework at heights, stripping off fragile roofs and instructing others in safe demolition practices

You’ll use tools like hammer drills, oxyacetylene cutting equipment, plant machinery and explosives. 

You might also use crane-mounted industrial magnets to recover metals, burners to incinerate materials, and put concrete slabs through crushers to make aggregate for road building.

You’ll also be trained to safely remove hazardous materials like asbestos and toxic chemicals.

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 may help if you have some GCSEs or equivalent including English and maths.

Experience of dealing with the public and giving presentations could be useful, and additional languages may also help.

You may need a Blue Badge in Tourist Guiding to work in places like Westminster Abbey and York Minster.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent communication skills
• the ability to present information in an interesting way
• a good memory for facts, figures and events
• organisational skills for planning tours

3. What you'll do

You'll work in one place or accompany groups on driving or walking tours.

You'll escort groups around sites, giving information about history, purpose, architecture or other points of interest.