Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

My job is EXTREMELY varied, however below is a list of my main responsibilities:

Responsible for day-to-day running of the Training Department.
Maintaining training records and arranging refresher training.
Maintaining various training accreditations including SQA, ALLMI and JAUPT.
Conducting audits of the training instructors.
Scheduling work for 3 members of the team and diary management for the H&S Director.
Use of various database systems.
HR administration including organising interviews, booking inductions, producing new starter paperwork.
Updating social media accounts.
Processing insurance claims.
Dealing with PCNs for drivers.
FORS practitioner; includes maintaining the FORS standards and applying for renewals every year.
Completing Supplier Approval Forms.
Ad hoc assistance to the H&S Director.
Analysis of data; production of reports.
Attending external training courses.

As mentioned previously, there is no such thing as a typical day in my job. I might be attending a conference on cycle safety one day, dealing with interviews and processing new starters another day, being audited by an external accreditation scheme or attending a meeting with our insurers to agree on improvements.

I really enjoy attending training courses, carrying out internal audits on training/HR/insurance data, attending conferences and helping to improve internal systems.

Working with drivers is very difficult; more often or not they joined the driving industry to just get in a truck and drive however changes to the law, the rise of Health & Safety and requirement for Driver CPC training means that you have to encourage drivers to buy into the culture that they are not just drivers any more and the responsibilities are now far more significant. In line with that, the industry is suffering a major driver shortage for a variety of reasons, so trying to recruit the right candidates - and keep them - is a massive challenge that my department is heavily involved in. As a woman in a male-dominated industry I also feel a responsibility to make females aware of the opportunities available to them.

I originally fell into the Training industry through my job as an Outdoor Activity Centre working for PGL. I had to learn a variety of different skills and was taken completely out of my comfort zone; trying to get a group of teenagers excited about low ropes in the pouring rain certainly tests your patience and challenges you to rise up in the face of adversity. I really developed my confidence through this role and found that, actually, talking to large groups of people isn't actually that scary...

I went on to have a role at a water hygiene company, initially as a Contracts Coordinator, but eventually this developed into a Training Instructor role, where I was delivering legionella awareness training across the country to a variety of clients.

As that company were unable to make the training position a full-time thing, I applied for the role I currently work in, which was initially as a Training Administrator but the role has progressed, the department has expanded, and this has led to promotion and extra responsibilities.

Although I don't deliver training any more, I am still heavily involved in all aspects of the 'before' and 'after' elements, as well as designing training programmes and making amendments to what we have in place. My role has really developed into an internal development and compliance role, particularly through my involvement with FORS

Analysis, proofreading, writing reports, scheduling, time management, communication skills.

Archant Suffolk - Telesales Canvasser - July 2008-May 2009: telesales role to generate new business/manage existing business in recruitment advertising

PGL - Activity Instructor/Group Leader - May 2009-Nov 2009; teaching variety of outdoor activities including quad bikes and archery to groups of children of varying ages

Prolog - Telesales Advisor - Nov 2009-May 2010; working on both inbound/outbound campaigns in a call centre environment.

Rawgarden - Customer Service Coordinator - May 2010-Sep 2010; Customer service role.

Colchester United FC - Football Sales Executive - Dec 2010-Feb 2011; selling a range of football-related products (advertising boards, executive boxes etc).

Nemco Utilies Ltd - Contracts Coordinator - Mar 2011-Sep 2014:
Assisted in project management.
Meetings with customers from individual business to national clients including housing associations, charities and power stations
Organising, booking, delivering and administrating legionella training courses nationwide for a range of clients
Involved in a business development project where we exceeded our target by 50%.
Attended 'success principles' workshops run by Directors.
Responsible for managing the Contracts Administrator.
Producing monthly compliance reports for a number of clients.
Reacting to time-dependent requirements for clients i.e. booking remedial works.
Writing up Risk Assessments.
Understanding of relevant HSE legislation.
Attending industry events and keeping up-to-date with industry changes
Sample analysis and reporting.
Use of internal database system.
Assisting engineers on tanks cleans/remedial works.

David Watson Transport Ltd - Training Manager - Sep 2014-present: see above.

Really look around; I fell into this industry completely by accident. Think about what you're good at and what you enjoy doing and try to find roles that fulfill that. Don't limit yourself to certain industries; if you want a marketing or PR role, don't necessarily apply to work for a company that specialises in that as most companies will have a department for that. And don't set your hearts on working for a big multi-national company; you'll often find that smaller, famil-led businesses will give you more opportunities to shape the role to suit you, to give your input and feedback, to implement changes and to progress.