Industry Sectors

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 competition is strong so you’ll usually need a foundation degree or a degree.

If you want to go into quantitative work (analysis based on numbers), these degrees may be useful:

• maths
• statistics
• business/management
• economics
• For qualitative work (analysis based on language), useful degrees include:
• psychology
• sociology
• geography
• social sciences
• anthropology

English or marketing degrees are also useful, as well as sciences or engineering for some specialist industrial jobs. 

You’ll also find it useful to have previous experience in marketing, sales or advertising, or as a market research interviewer. 

You could get a paid internship or join a graduate training scheme. You could also start as a research assistant in an agency and then take further qualifications.

The Market Research Society (MRS) has more information about careers in market research.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

excellent number and IT skills

the ability to analyse and interpret statistics

written communication skills for report writing and designing questionnaires

creative problem-solving skills

accuracy and attention to detail

organisational and time-management skills

initiative and teamwork skills

3. What you'll do

As a market research executive, you’ll specialise in one type of research – consumer or industrial, social or political. You’ll carry out research using one of 2 main methods:

quantitative – analysis based on numbers, from surveys of large samples of people

qualitative – analysis based on language, from focus groups and in-depth questionnaires

Depending on the type of research, in your work you’ll usually:

meet clients to discuss research projects

come up with a plan or proposal and present it to the client

manage a budget

design questionnaires and organise surveys

brief interviewers and researchers

monitor progress of surveys

analyse data and present results to the client

advise the client how they can best use the research

Most jobs involve a lot of computer work, for background research and to analyse information and produce reports.

4. Salary

Starter: £20,000 to £25,000

Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

Highly Experienced: £60,000 (senior market research executive)

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

If you work as a quantitative researcher in-house for a company, you’ll usually work in an office with standard hours, Monday to Friday, with occasional overtime to meet project deadlines.

If you work as a qualitative researcher, you’ll often work evenings and weekends to travel to visit clients and focus groups. You may need a driving licence and a car.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could progress into management, or become a self-employed market research consultant. 

You could also move into the promotional side of advertising or marketing.

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.

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

1. Entry requirements

You'll usually need a foundation degree, HND or degree in a subject like marketing, advertising or business.

Experience as a marketing assistant, or working in sales or public relations, could help you get into this job without a degree.

You could also get into marketing through an apprenticeship.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has more information about qualifications and training.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

excellent organisational, planning and IT skills

strong communication and negotiating ability

creativity and writing skills

3. What you'll do

You could work for sales or marketing agencies, or in marketing departments of organisations like financial services or manufacturing.

You could also work for fund-raising charities, heritage organisations or the education sector.

Your day-to-day tasks may involve:

doing research on customer and market trends

identifying target markets and possible sponsors

creating and planning marketing campaigns

using automated systems for email campaigns and customer management

writing and editing for print and multiple online uses

organising promotions and events to meet clients, suppliers and the media

managing campaign websites and social media

managing budgets and monitoring the effectiveness of campaigns

4. Salary

Starter: £18,000 to £22,000

Experienced: £22,000 to £30,000

Highly Experienced: £30,000 to £35,000 (senior)

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. You may occasionally work evenings and weekends.

You'll be based in an office but may travel to meet clients and attend events.

You may need a full driving licence.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a marketing manager.

You could also become a freelance marketing consultant, or move into areas like advertising, sales or public relations.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has details of professional development.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

 You'll usually need a a degree, MSc or postgraduate diploma recognised by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

 You can also take an approved degree-level qualification through:

• NEBOSH
• British Safety Council
• City& Guilds
• National Compliance and Risk Qualifications (NCRQ)

If you don't have a degree, you'll usually need some relevant work experience and a qualification in health and safety recognised by IOSH.

You could study for a health and safety qualification while you’re working. You could also take a course before looking for a trainee position.

IOSH has more information about courses and careers in health and safety.

The Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register has a list of professional bodies and examining boards.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent communication and negotiation skills
• organisational skills
• problem solving ability
• excellent IT skills

3. What you'll do

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• developing safety policies and procedures
• advising and training staff on health and safety practices
• making regular inspections
• doing risk assessments
• investigating and recording accidents in the workplace
• working with relevant inspectors and trade unions
• You could work in many different industries including:
• construction and engineering
• mining, quarrying, oil and gas exploration
• manufacturing and services
• chemical processing
• You could also work in public services like hospitals, education and local government.

4. Salary

Starter: £22,000 to £30,000

Experienced: £35,000 to £50,000 (manager)

Highly Experienced: £70,000 or more (senior manager)

Health and safety advisers work in all industries.

Careers in oil, gas, power, construction and IT will usually offer higher salaries. 

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. In some industries, your hours may be irregular and you could work shifts or be expected to be on-call for emergencies.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could move into a management role. 

You could also become a consultant and specialise in a particular area, like environmental safety. With further study you could move into research or lecturing.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements. You could start this career with a background in journalism, marketing or IT, or with business experience.

You’ll usually need experience of writing content, although not necessarily online. You could gain this by:

• blogging or writing on social media 
• writing marketing materials or newsletters 
• volunteering for a student newspaper, charity or community group

Knowledge of web design, desktop publishing and photo editing will be useful. A portfolio of work to show employers would also be helpful.

You could also take a course that would teach you some of the skills needed for producing web content, like journalism, publishing, media and communications, or PR and marketing.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

• organisational skills and the ability to meet deadlines 
• financial management and negotiating skills 
• confident presentation skills 
• the ability to build relationships with clients and partners 
• an excellent grasp of English grammar, punctuation and spelling 
• the ability to write for a target audience 
• creative skills to find interesting ways to present information and to generate new ideas 
• attention to detail, for example when proofreading

3. What you'll do

You’ll work on websites or company intranets.

Your day-to-day duties might include:

• taking a lead role in maintaining and developing a site 
• attending meetings to plan and develop site content, style and appearance 
• using web content management systems (CMS) 
• analysing website usage statistics 
• writing reports for senior managers, clients and partnership organisations 
• carrying out quality assurance checks on content 
• reporting technical problems to IT support staff 
• The type of content you might work on could include:
• e-commerce, like online shopping or banking 
• product advertising and retail catalogues 
• local, national and international news reports 
• social media output 
• college and university websites 
• online public information and government services
• In larger companies, you might manage an editorial team. You’ll have a more 'hands on' role in smaller organisations.
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4. Salary

Starter: £25,000 to £28,000

Experienced: £32,000 to £40,000

Highly Experienced: £55,000 or more

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work 35 to 40 hours a week, Monday to Friday. You may sometimes need to work overtime to meet deadlines.

Most of your work will be office-based at a computer. There may be some out-of-office duties, like attending meetings with clients or partners.

6. Career path and progression

You could progress into information management, search engine optimisation (SEO), technical web development or wider information planning and policy roles.

Role Description

Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent organisational, planning and time management skills
• leadership, and communication skills
• the ability to negotiate and influence
• budgeting skills
• IT skills for using project management software
• the ability to use initiative and work under pressure

What you'll do

You could work on different types of project in almost any industry or sector like construction, IT or the NHS. You might be managing a large building development, introducing a new computer system or developing a new advertising campaign. 

You'll be:

• finding out what the client or business wants to achieve
• agreeing timescales, costs and resources
• drawing up a plan for each project stage
• negotiating with contractors and suppliers
• choosing and leading a project team
• constantly monitoring progress, quality and costs
• reporting regularly to senior managers and the client
• using specialised software and spreadsheets for planning, costing and analysing risks

Role Training

While you're working, you could study for an industry qualification like PRINCE2 or Agile.

You could also get professional qualifications through:

Association for Project Management (APM)

Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

Project Management Institute (PMI)

If you're working in the IT industry, you could get a certificate in project management through The Chartered Institute for IT (BCS).

With experience, you could move into senior management or become a freelance consultant.