After school, the next step in your career can go in four main directions – read a little bit about each one below and see some examples of people in green jobs who’ve taken these steps to start their career journey.
Apprenticeships
Practical training whilst earning
Apprenticeships are often very hands-on and when completed an apprentice is usually offered a job at the company they’ve trained in.
You can explore how an apprenticeship can progress your career by checking out the apprenticeship occupational maps created by Skills England.
Degree Apprentices
Work part-time at a company and earn money whilst studying for a degree (which your company pays for!). Usually this takes a little longer to complete – 5 years but at the end you’ll have a top-notch qualification and usually a job at the company you’ve trained with. See Cerise – Commercial Manager example below – she’s just completed a degree apprenticeship with EDF and the University of the West of England.
Find out more about Degree Apprenticeships here.
Here are three examples of green job apprenticeships.
College
Further Education (FE)
There are a huge range of college courses, not only in terms of subjects, but also in terms of course length and qualification type.
If you want hands-on training, colleges also have a whole list of vocational courses (focused on skills for specific jobs) that are really practical.
There are a range of college course providers in the West of England, follow the links below to find colleges for the different regions:
- Bristol
- BANES & Somerset
- South Gloucestershire
Here are four examples of people in green jobs who started their career by taking a college course.
Job
There is funding available to stay in training and education up to 19 years of age, but after that (or post 16) you can enter the workforce and start earning immediately.
You can progress within a company, but each company has it’s own progression pathways – definitely something to ask at interview!
For ideas getting into work – check out Skills Connect pages on this and their section on Green Jobs.
Here are two examples of people in green jobs who started their career by going straight into the workforce.
University
Higher Education (HE)
This is the most academic of the four options – when individuals want to continue studying an area of interest and get teaching from experts in a field. Practical skills are often a core part of courses and there are a number of vocational courses – that lead to a specific job – like a Medical degree leading to becoming a doctor.
It’s common for people to take courses later on in their career to supplement their knowledge and skills – such as a Masters degree in Business Studies.
Degree Apprentices
Work part-time at a company and earn money whilst studying for a degree (which your company pays for!). Usually this takes a little longer to complete – 5 years but at the end you’ll have a top-notch qualification and usually a job at the company you’ve trained with. See Cerise – Commercial Manager example below – she’s just completed a degree apprenticeship with EDF and the University of the West of England.
Find out more about Degree Apprenticeships here.
Here are three examples of people in green jobs who started their career at University.
Wriggly Career Routes
You might feel pressure to figure out what career route and job sector you want to move into, and although it’s good to think about this and have a look at the options, most people don’t know for sure. But don’t feel worried about not being certain. It’s really common to have “wiggly” career routes, that start in one sector and move into completely job sectors, and complete qualifications later down the line. That’s fine! Lots of skills are transferrable, so if you’re good at listening in one type of job, you can use that in another type. Read about Ammar and Gemma who both did big career switches.
Top career advice is to follow what your interested in.