New careers: the best sectors

Changing careers can be a wise move if the industry you worked in is in terminal decline or your role has been replaced by a computer or outsourced to India: your job might not come back even when the economy does improve. If you do change career, it is best to look to industries and jobs that will grow strongly in future. We've got a few ideas such as jobs in sustainable living, care for the elderly and new ways of learning and doing business. And beware government initiatives to fast-track people into public service jobs such as teaching. Often the funding is there for the training but not for the jobs at the end of the road.

1. Sustainable living

With increasing pressure on the limited supply of natural resources, any skills that help us move towards sustainable living are in growing demand.

• The Soil Association has set up an Organic Apprenticeship Scheme where students learn all aspects of organic farming, while apprenticed to a farmer for two years.
• You can take NVQs, BTEC qualifications and degrees in "green" agriculture, environment and related topics at Duchy College in Cornwall.
• Or you might opt for an 18-month course in Biodynamic Organic Agriculture Training - the Art of Farming at a residential  centre, Emerson College.

2. Care for the elderly

With an increasingly aged population, skills that help care for the aged will be in growing demand for some years to come. Aside from the standard routes to qualification as a doctor or nurse, there are a wide number of other roles in the health sector including:

Care home management

There are careers for people who look after the elderly (e.g. care assistants) and those who manage the running of a care home (e.g. care managers).  There are no formal qualifications to start working in in this field, it is usual to study on the job for: NVQ Level 2 - introductory level knowledge for Care Assistants, NVQ Level 3 - skills needed to be a Deputy Care Manager, NVQ Level 4 - skills needed to be a Care Manager. Salaries range from about £15k for a care assistant to £30k for a care manager.

Therapies

Therapists play an increasingly-important role in the well-being of the aged. For example, occupational therapists can help stroke victims recover mobility and speech and language therapists work with stroke victims and dementia sufferers to improve their powers of communication. To qualify as a therapist in one of these areas requires a degree that is recognised by the Health Professions Council (HPC). If you already have a degree in a related field, you can take a 2 year post-graduate conversion course. Therapists earn an average salary of £28K with excellent opportunities for progression and specialisation.

There are no formal entry qualifications for therapy assistants, although A-levels in science and health care subjects are useful. There is strong demand for assistants, who earn about £14.5K. Work like this could help you decide if you like the work and assist you in applying for relevant courses.

3. Teaching and education

There is increasing demand for teachers in the workplace and the leisure sector as well as schools. With a continual need to reskill for work, and an aged population with the time and desire to learn, there are many new opportunities in this field.

Teaching in the workplace

There is growing demand for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), taught by NVQ assessors, whose results are checked by verifiers. This means that there are good opportunities to become assessors and verifiers. To get into this field you need to gain a qualification over and above an NVQ in the relevant field:

• The A1 Assessor Award enables you to assess NVQ candidates in your area of expertise, to the level of NVQ you hold and you can expect to earn about £19K.
• The V1 Verifier Award enables you to monitor the performance of other NVQ assessors. You must have at least a year's experience as an NVQ assessor and can earn about £25K.

Outdoor education

If you are a keen sailor or mountain climber, you could turn your hobby into a career with coaching qualifications. Most qualifications are managed by relevant organisations, such as the Royal Yachting Association or Mountain Leader Training England. Courses are usually modular and run at centres around the country. Enquire at your nearest Outdoor Pursuits centre for information about courses they offer or search online. Typical roles are:

• Activities instructor 13K
• Facilities administrator 18K
• Facilities manager 35K

Teaching in schools and colleges

To qualify to teach in state primary and secondary schools, you must have a primary degree and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, currently a 1 year full-time course. Most courses require you to have prior experience in the classroom. The average salary for a teacher of science is £28K and of english is £25K and many add to their income by taking on responsibilities in either school or curriculum management. To get prior experience in the classroom, you could work as:

• Teaching assistants help the teacher in the classroom and earn about £14.5K.
• Higher level teaching assistants with specialist subject knowledge or who participate more actively in teaching earn £17K or more.
• Cover supervisors take classes when teachers are absent, keeping order and ensuring students complete pre-set tasks and earn £16K or more.

Working in a supportive role in a school, you can study for NVQ Levels 2 and 3 in Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools.

You do not need formal teaching qualifications to teach at third level colleges who often hire part-time lecturers who have specific expertise required for a course. Contact colleges in your area to enquire about opportunities. If you do pick up some part-time work, consider taking NVQs or possibly BTEC qualifications to reinforce your value to the college.

Teaching online

There are online courses in just about any topic you can imagine and the quality of courses varies from reputable and accredited through to completely useless. Online teaching depends on good resources and skilled tutors. Distance learning providers hire tutors who have appropriate subject knowledge to support their students. With experience as a tutor, and a relationship with a provider, you could also be in a position to work with them developing learning resources.

4. New ways of doing business

Big businesses are changing the way that they work.  Out with command and control management structures and in with more flexible ways of working: in the jargon "collaborative, networked models".  This may not mean a lot to you, but it creates new types of management and technology careers based on skills such as:

• Agile business processes: The University of Southampton runs a two-day course in Building Agile Organisations, costing £1200. A free alternative is to attend webinars on various Agile Business topics hosted by Agile Journal. The Scrum Alliance runs training and certification programmes for various scrum roles.
• Information management: London Metropolitan University runs a 1 year (full-time) or 2 year (part-time) MSc in Digital Information Management.  Or perhaps a career as a specialist indexer is for you, which you can study online with the Society of Indexers. If you want to work in the exciting new area of the semantic web, the United Nations University provides a free course (somewhat outdated) in Ontology, Semantic Web-and Electronic Government that will help get you started.

Knowledge of agile processes is desired for a wide range of jobs, not only in software development but across many roles and organisations. Information managers can expect to earn over £45K.

Logistics

Historically, logistics is not impacted by economic downturns and demand is bouyant. The work involves managing the movement of goods and people and can be for a specific company or for a logistics service company. The Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics offers a range of modular courses, both online and centre-based. You can study for a range of NVQs in Supply Chain Management:

• Level 2 for administrator roles, to earn about £20K.
• Level 3 for manager roles, who earn about £40K.
• Level 4 and 5 for director roles, who can earn from £80K.

Useful links

• Workhound is a gem of a site where you can chart employment trends, view average salaries and search for jobs.
• Prospects is the official graduate careers site for the UK, where you can view job descriptions, entry requirements and job potential, as well as linking to relevant courses.
• UCAS is the official clearing house for UK universities, where you apply for university courses. Start by taking the free Stamford Test to help you decide what to study.
• Search all NVQ and other courses offered by Edexcel.
• The Direct Gov site explains the different qualifications and you can search for a course.