Explore & Discover

Role Description

Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent communication skills with people at all levels
• the ability to understand and interpret complex language
• research and analysis skills
• strong ability with figures and IT
• the ability to manage your time, prioritise and delegate work to others

 What you'll do

You could work in different areas, including:

Private practice

• providing legal services like conveyancing, probate, civil and family law, litigation, personal injury and criminal law
• advising businesses and corporate clients in areas like contract law, tax, employment law and company sales and mergers
• advising on insurance, patents, shipping, banking, the media or entertainment

Commerce and industry

• providing in-house legal advice for companies 
• Local and central government
• providing advice in areas like education, planning and social services
• advising government ministers
• prosecuting people who break rules

Court services

• working for the Crown Prosecution Service
• advising the police on prosecutions
• advising magistrates in local courts
• Law centres, charities and the armed forces
• advising the not-for-profit sector

Depending on your role, you may be:

• advising and representing clients in court
• instructing barristers or advocates to act for clients
• drafting confidential letters and contracts
• researching legal records and case law
• attending meetings and negotiations
• managing finances and preparing papers for court
• using plain English to explaining complex legal matters to clients
• keeping up to date with changes in the law

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 support senior finance officers and finance managers to prepare and develop accounting information.

• Your day-to-day duties could include: 
• recording financial transactions on computer systems 
• producing financial forecasts 
• dealing with payroll, invoices, expenses and VAT 
• carrying out financial audits 
• creating monthly, quarterly and annual budget reports 
• presenting report findings to finance managers

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

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

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but a good standard of general education is important, including GCSEs in maths and English. Computer skills will also be useful for using online sales systems and scanners.
 
You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

good timekeeping skills

the ability to work quickly and accurately

a well organised approach

3. What you'll do

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

selecting items to match the customer’s order sheet

using voice-activated picking machines and scanners

requesting freshly made items from in-house departments like bakeries

checking product quality

choosing suitable replacements where stock has sold out

packing items ready for despatch

updating customer records on computer systems

helping customers if working in-store

4. Salary

Starter: £14,000 to £17,000

Experienced: £18,000 to £20,000

Highly Experienced: £23,000

You may receive higher pay for night shifts or meeting targets.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work up to 40 hours a week on shifts, which may include weekends and nights.

You’ll be based in a warehouse, distribution centre or larger retail store. The job can be physically demanding and you could work in cool temperatures, for example in chiller rooms.

You’ll need your own transport to get to work when shifts fall outside normal public transport hours.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a shift supervisor then move into section or warehouse management. 

You could also become a delivery driver if you work for a supermarket. 

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

You'll need

• excellent driving skills and knowledge of traffic regulations
• good customer service and clear communication skills
• an assertive but polite approach to difficult passengers
• good geographical knowledge
• If you travel abroad, you'll also need an understanding of overseas traffic laws and some basic foreign language skills.

What you'll do

• You could work for local bus companies, long distance operators, or holiday tour companies in the UK or overseas.
• You could also work in community transport, driving schoolchildren, hospital patients and older people to their destinations.

Your day-to-day duties may include:

• taking fares
• checking tickets and passes
• giving timetable or route information
• helping passengers who are having difficulty getting on or off the vehicle
• driving safely and keeping to timetables
• If you're a coach driver, your duties may also include:
• greeting passengers and checking documents
• loading and unloading luggage
• making announcements during the journey
• making sure passengers are back on board for return journeys, and after scheduled stops
• keeping the coach clean and doing basic vehicle checks
• recording driving hours and reporting any incidents
• If you drive to overseas destinations, you’ll need to keep passengers up to date with travel information and deal with border control authorities.