Business & Admin
Business and administration is a wide field that incorporates many types of roles, from secretarial and support to management positions. These types of professionals are needed in a wide variety of businesses, from hospitals and banks to media companies and factories, often running things behind the scenes: organising projects, teams and ensuring the smooth operation of organisations.
Jobs in business operations
In business, day-to-day operations are as important as long-term plans for the future. A career in business could touch on IT, leadership dynamics and increasingly on ethics and international relationships. There’s incredible room for growth in the industry: when you find the right role there’s plenty of scope working your way up the ladder. Plus, skills you acquire in one capacity will translate into others as your career path evolves.
Jobs in administration
Virtually every industry has some form of administrative requirement; such is the broad nature of this industry. Receptionists, secretaries, personal assistants, support officers and people in many other administrative positions are responsible for ‘getting things done’ in the business world. Administrators are responsible for completing any supportive task required by an organisation, whether it involves assisting investment bankers with the paperwork required to do a deal, informing the managing director of where his next meeting is, or managing an entire office.
Mostly, when people refer to administration careers they will be talking about people in assistant-level positions who are responsible for routine office duties. You might be involved in ordering and delivering goods, motivating others, dealing with paperwork or answering customer complaints. It all depends on the industry you wish to work in.
However, managers also fall under the sphere of administration. For example, you could be an office manager or a programme support officer who is responsible for directing and motivating others in the office. Management and administration professionals work hand-in-hand to make strategies become a reality.
Jobs in consultancy
Business consultants come up with answers to all sorts of important business questions: what makes the world’s leading brands so successful? How can businesses, their suppliers and networks operate in an environmentally friendly way? How can they make sure their staff feel happy at work? Commonly, consultants will start a project by being given a brief by a company. This will explain a precise business-related issue with which they need assistance.
The consultant will often work on site with the client, and use their knowledge and expertise to better understand the specific issue. When they have conducted their analysis and made their conclusions, they will put forward their suggestions for business change, and they will often they help them through the implementation of the proposed initiatives too. The overall goal of this process is to enhance the company’s business performance and productivity.
Companies and organisations dictate everything they do by an overall business strategy. This strategy involves crucial processes that have often been defined and implemented following a huge amount of research, debate and deliberation. Business consultants are therefore just as invaluable to business as the administrators keeping the company going at an operational level.
Business & admin apprenticeships
School leavers wanting to working in this industry could access it via apprenticeships. On an Intermediate Apprenticeship (Level 2) those leaving school with GCSEs could train in roles like administrator / business support officer, receptionist, and junior legal secretary.
They could then do an Advanced Apprenticeship (Level 3) in roles like administration officer, administration team leader, personal assistant and secretary.
There are also business and admin Higher Apprenticeships (Level 4), for those with A-levels or who have completed an Advanced Apprenticeship. On these programmes you could train in roles like office manager, administration team leader and business development executive.
Those wanting to work in business and admin could also consider a school leaver programme: schemes on which trainees work for a company (and are paid a salary) while also studying towards professional qualifications. Some employers also run sponsored degrees in this sector.
