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Introduction
Understanding different sectors will help you make informed choices about your career goals. This is particularly helpful if you are a new level 2 or level 3 apprentice.
Overview of the UK's financial sector
The financial sector can be grouped into:
Accounting - This covers financial accountants responsible for managing and reporting a business's accounts and managerial accountants performing functions on behalf of the company itself. Roles are available with firms of all sizes, as well as not-for-profit organisations.
Banking and finance - The sector's biggest employers, banks and building societies enable individuals and businesses to manage their money and access products such as loans, mortgages and insurance.
Financial planning - This focuses on the provision of advisory services, and support people and organisations looking to plan their financial futures.
Insurance - Insurance is a financial product sold by insurance companies to safeguard you and / or your property or businesses against the risk of loss, damage or theft (such as flooding, burglary or an accident).
Investments and pensions - Professionals research the likely performance of funds and look to mitigate financial risk and liability for their clients, with the key functions of investment companies including performance measurement, investment support, risk assessment, data management, and trading and stockbroking.
Tax - Often regarded as a subset of accounting, tax specialists can either work as advisers to their employer's clients or take up governmental positions.
Overview of the Information Technology sector
According to CompTIA's State of the Tech Workforce UK report, the tech sector employed just under two million workers in 2021, accounting for 6.3% of the total UK workforce.
In addition, the UK Tech Ecosystem update (June 2022) - a Tech Nation report supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Digital Economy Council - revealed that there's been a huge push to encourage talent to enter the industry, with over two million open vacancies within the past year.
Many IT professionals also choose to work outside the sector, such as in the IT departments of retail, finance, manufacturing and public sector organisations.
Overview of the UK's Environmental sector
The environmental sector is greatly expanding both as a sector in its own right (such as roles in sustainable development, agriculture and energy) and as part of financial services roles.
For example, many large organisations have corporate social responsibility teams. Accountants handle ESG (environmental, social governance) reporting. The Banking and Insurance sector deal with Green finance and climate risk.
If you want to learn more on ESG read here
Overview of the UK's Energy and Utilities sector
The industry is a mix of different companies involved in:
constructing and managing infrastructure, such as power stations
generating electricity using fossil fuels, nuclear or renewables
distributing electricity and gas around the national network
buying electricity and gas on the energy market and selling it to consumers
extracting, transporting and refining oil and gas
A growing number of energy firms focus on renewable technologies. If this is your area of interest, you can search the members of RenewableUK to find relevant organisations.
There are public sector roles with local authorities and in organisations such as Ofwat and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), the body responsible for regulating the energy industry.
According to the UK trade association for the energy industry Energy UK, around 743,000 people are directly or indirectly employed in the sector (2022) - equating to one in 48 jobs in the UK. Also, more than £13billion was invested in 2021 to deliver power and energy to 28 million homes and businesses.
Overview of Business sectors
The business sector is vast, but it can generally be split into two main areas: business management and consultancy.
Business managers usually work in general management jobs or hold specific responsibilities for a particular area of an organisation, such as marketing, strategy planning, human resources (HR), talent management, operations management, or information technology (IT). Some roles lean towards people management, while others focus on project management - but most managers need skills in both areas.
Meanwhile, consultants offer advice to organisations to help them solve problems and enhance performance. They either work in large companies or consultancy firms. Organisations can be general, specialise in strategy or offer advice to a specific industry, such as:
Overview of the Charity and Voluntary Work sector
There's more to the charity sector than raising money, but one thing is for certain - you'll need a genuine passion to improve and enrich society to succeed. If you'd like to make the world a better place the charity and voluntary sector gives you plenty of opportunity to do so. The industry needs a range of skills, and you could find work in:
accountancy and finance
administration
advice and counselling
business development and project management
campaigning, lobbying and fundraising
corporate social responsibility (CSR)
human resources (HR)
information technology (IT)
marketing and public relations (PR)
research and policy
retail
social care
support services
teaching, education and training
volunteer management and co-ordination.
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