Industries with acute staff shortages can often provide the best opportunities for a fast-track career.
Demand for all IT staff will grow by 12 per cent over the next two years and for development and support staff it will grow by almost 15 per cent. Or how about engineering? Some areas of the sector are crying out for new recruits. Ever fancied being a teacher? On the back of last year’s recruitment campaign, the Government is still trying to attract people into the profession to fill over 5,000 vacancies in London alone.
Find out which skills are highest in demand and what you need to attain them by clicking on the sector that interests you.
Forget the constant bad news stories about struggling car and steel manufacturers, the engineering industry has plenty of opportunities, particularly in areas such as electronics, computer software and design.
Skills in Demand: Engineering
What personal qualities are needed to become an engineer?
- A keen interest in keeping up to date with new technology
- Scientific understanding
- Numeracy
- Being a team worker
- Ability to face changes
- Ability to take responsibility
Where are the opportunities?
- Design engineering
- Electronic engineering
- Computer technology/software engineering
Training
Engineering is diverse, with grades ranging from the operator who doesn’t need formal qualifications and is doing fairly simple tasks, up to the chartered engineer involved in, say, aircraft design. In engineering, it is possible to start at different levels and train up.
There are five engineering grades: operator; craftsperson; engineering technician; incorporated engineer (Ieng) and chartered engineer (Ceng).
Engineering degree courses take between three and five years and require three subjects at A-level, in relevant scientific subjects, particularly maths and physics. Some universities offer a one-year foundation course for those without a scientific background to cover maths, physics and engineering principles.
Pay
The average starting salary for engineering graduates is around £20k, according to The Association of Graduate Recruiters’ Annual Survey of Graduate Salaries 2001. The DTI/Barclays National Graduate Tracking Survey 2001 showed new engineering graduates earned 20 per cent more than the typical graduate, and, ten years down the road, were among the top ten highest paid graduates.
The average gross earnings for registered chartered engineers, according to the Engineering Council Survey of Registrants (for the year ending April 2020) is £61k.
Skills in demand: IT
According to the Salaries and Staff Issues in Computing 2002 survey from the National Computing Centre, demand for all IT staff will grow 12 per cent over the next two years and for development and support staff it will grow by almost 15 per cent.
Sixty per cent of respondents indicated that they would require new skills within their IT function next year. Most cited skills included Internet, intranet, e-commerce, Java and XML.
Senior level IT jobs are currently the most in demand, according to Shalina Ibrahin, recruitment consultant with Computer Futures.
Top ten IT skills in demand:
- C++
- SQL
- Unix
- Oracle
- Visual Basic
- Java
- Office
- Windows NT
- TCP/IP
- SQL Server
Source: Computer Weekly, February 2021.
The rewards
The average wage in the UK’s IT industry is £37,200, with 25 per cent of people earning in excess of £59k. The average hourly rate for contract workers (who make up nearly a third of IT workers) is £23 per hour, according to computing job market indices from www.jobstats.co.uk London salaries average £45,200 or £28 per hour.
Training information
- The British Computer Society customer services department can provide advice on computer training. Call 01793 417417
- As a starting point, check out your local college for short introductory web courses. The London College of Printing, for example, runs a two-day introduction to web site production and a three-day web design course. Call 020 7514 6500
- Park Lane College in Leeds offers ten-hour starter courses for the web, as well as running an IT summer school. Call 0113 216 2000
Skills in demand: Nursing and the NHS
The Government has already met an ambitious target to recruit 20,000 nurses in England by 2020 and has now decided to double that figure again. It is hoping that nurses will be lured by better pay, improved career prospects and schemes such as cheaper mortgages. It is particularly keen to recruit midwives and theatre nurses.
What personal qualities are needed to become a nurse?
- A genuine desire to care for others
- A good team worker with excellent communication skills
- Good health and bags of energy
- Commitment to continuing developing skills
Training
Before becoming a registered nurse you need to complete a college or university-based programme of education and training to degree or diploma level.
- The minimum requirement for a Diploma of Higher Education in Nursing is five GCSEs at grade C. The course generally lasts three years and is college- or university-based with periods of practical work in hospitals.
- A degree course requires two GCE A levels or equivalent, and training usually takes three years.
- Midwives take a three-year diploma or degree programme of midwifery education leading to qualification as a registered midwife. There are faster routes for trained nurses.
- The Nursing and Midwifery Admissions Service gives information on courses and colleges at www.nmas.ac.uk.
How much does it pay?
Nursing
Students on nursing diploma courses receive a non means-tested bursary of at least £5.3k. Students on a degree course may receive a means-tested bursary. A newly qualified nurse joining the NHS on grade D will receive a minimum of £15,455 (with a further £2,365 for those living in inner London and £1,684 in outer London). A senior ward sister can earn up to £26,290 basic pay (more in London), and a nurse consultant can earn up to £45k.
Other opportunities within the NHS
Away from the front line, there is another whole army of NHS workers. There are currently 6,500 vacancies in fields including arts therapists, chiropodists, dieticians, pharmacists, clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, radiographers and physiotherapists. Particularly in demand are radiographers and speech and language therapists.
Radiographers
There are two branches: diagnostic radiotherapy and therapeutic radiography. Both use high-tech computerised equipment and require a sound knowledge of technology, anatomy, physiology and pathology.
Diagnostic radiographers are responsible for producing and interpreting high-quality images on film to diagnose disease and injury. Therapeutic radiographers help treat patients using X-rays and other radioactive sources.
Qualifying courses are at degree level, normally taking three years. Earnings go from £15,920-18,485 up to £31,870 for the top grade.
Speech and language therapists
Speech and language therapists work with people who have communication disorders, including speech defects. Courses are at degree level; also there is a two-year postgraduate diploma and masters courses available to people with relevant degrees. Speech and language therapists earn from £15,244 when newly qualified, up to the top band earning up to £60,147.
Skills in demand: Retail
The retail sector is one of the largest employers in the UK and is set to recruit 100,000 new staff this year.
Whatever the customers want, retailers compete to deliver, from designer fashions, 24-hour supermarkets, mail order firms, shops, hypermarkets to discount warehouses.
What personal qualities do I need to work in retail?
- Sales consultants are the public faces of retailing with responsibility for keeping customers satisfied and coming back again and again. Forget the old ‘Are You Being Served?’ stereotype, today’s salespeople need a mix of good communication skills, friendly outgoing personalities, the ability to work in a team within a hectic environment and plenty of stamina.
- Managers have day-to-day responsibility for handling staff and are accountable for the profitability of their department, or indeed a whole store or supermarket. The job calls for good management skills, commercial awareness, ability to delegate and leadership skills.
- Behind the scenes, there are many interesting career opportunities. Buyers are charged with stocking the shelves with goods we will want to buy, whilst ensuring a profit for the retailer. They need to have excellent negotiation and analytical skills. Allocators and merchandisers make sure the right products are in the right place at the right time in order to maximise sales throughout the company by planning, controlling and monitoring the purchase and distribution of merchandise to maximise profit. The ideal qualifications for a career in merchandising would be in maths, business or finance.
There is demand across the board, but store managers are in the most demand. Current big employers include supermarket chains Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, and high street retailers Comet, Argos and Marks and Spencer.
Training
There are opportunities at every level from school leaver to graduate. Unless you choose to work in a specialist area of retail, much training is on-the-job with entrants sometimes working towards NVQ qualifications. Relevant previous experience or qualifications will ensure entering the profession a few rungs higher on the ladder.
Pay
Retail salaries vary widely across retailer type, job description and region, varying from £8k plus commission for sales assistant positions to six figure sums for chief executives of major brands. In general, assistant managers and assistant buyers can expect to pocket from £15-17k, experienced buyers from £25k and senior buyers up to around £45k. Store management can vary from £15-17k entry level, to around £40k for experienced managers.
Skills in demand: Secretarial
Forget the hype about paperless offices and voice recognition machinery. There continues to be huge demand for good secretaries who are still very much perceived as central to a team.
Secretaries can command anything from £14k to £35k and a few select PA jobs can pay up to £70k.
Top-earning jobs for secretaries:
Executive PA c.£25-35k+
Despite the downturn, there is still a dearth of PAs at a very senior level, according to Sarah El-Doori, head of marketing for recruitment consultancy Office Angels. ‘Multi-skilled senior PAs are like gold dust,’ she says.
Senior PAs will have the sort of role commonly associated with middle management. They will be expected to work in a proactive way, taking high-level decisions in the absence of the boss, have exceptional communication skills and take responsibility for their own projects. These commonly include initiatives such as planning training programmes, managing budgets, recruiting staff and managing car fleets.
What do I need to become an executive PA?
Essential skills:
- Flexibility
- Initiative
- Project management skills
- Understanding of the commercial world
- Excellent keyboard skills
- Wide knowledge of software packages such as Access (database); Excel (spreadsheet); PowerPoint (presentation) QuarkXPress (desktop publishing)
Desirable skills:
- Good knowledge of the Internet
- Shorthand
- Languages
Legal secretary c.£30k
Legal secretaries are in demand, particularly in London. Paul Kelly of specialist legal secretarial recruitment agency JM Legal has seen demand rise significantly over the past year or so, and with it salaries going through the roof. This is due in part to a large influx of US law firms constantly bringing in new lawyers, all needing secretaries. A lot of very capable secretaries are put off becoming legal secretaries because of the jargon, but it is possible to pick up the skills pretty quickly.
How do I become a legal secretary?
One of the best ways of gaining legal secretarial experience is direct from a law firm. Many companies now offer comprehensive training to ease recruits into the new environment. They tend to be particularly interested in secretaries from a partnership background, particularly finance-based companies.
Alternatively, take a legal secretarial course: Ilex Paralegal Training runs a year-long legal secretary diploma courses in colleges nationwide for £115, or a correspondence course for £325. For more information call 01234 348848.
Skills in demand: Teaching
Those who can teach. That’s the message behind the latest Government recruitment drive to plug the shortage of teachers. This year 31,000 people are expected to start teacher training in the UK, a seven per cent increase on last year. The shortfall of teachers in Greater London alone currently stands at 5,200.
The biggest shortfall is in secondary schools where teachers are needed for shortage subjects including maths, geography, English, religious education, physics and foreign languages.
What personal qualities do I need to become a teacher?
- You need to like and relate well to youngsters
- You will be committed to opening up young minds
- Excellent communication skills
- A creative nature and bags of energy
- A sense of humour helps
- Training
There are various routes into teaching. If you want to teach in England and Wales you must hold Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), obtained by completing an approved course of teacher training.
There are undergraduate and postgraduate routes into teaching. The undergraduate route requires at least two A-levels or equivalent qualifications.
Teacher training programmes are available by full or part-time study, and some postgraduate programmes are available by distance or modular study. All training includes time spent in the classroom.
You can train to teach any of the subjects included in the National Curriculum: English, mathematics, science, design and technology, information technology, history, geography, music, art, physical education and modern languages. At the secondary level, there are also limited places in other subjects.
At the primary level, you will need to teach English, maths and science, and specialise in at least one other National Curriculum subject. You can either train to cover the whole primary or secondary age range or focus on a more specific age range.
Get a taste for teaching
The Government campaign is aimed at attracting postgraduates and people looking to change careers for something more satisfying. Taster courses are available, normally lasting three days. For more details call 01245 454454.
Teachers’ pay
There is a £6k training salary. As an incentive to choose shortage subjects (maths, science, modern languages and technology) teachers receive a ‘golden hello’ of £4k when they begin their second year of teaching in a maintained school.
Teachers start on up to £24k. A good, experienced classroom teacher can earn up to £34k, with those with advanced skills or who take on additional responsibilities able to earn up to £48k.
Headteachers can now earn up to £82k.