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Career Area

Buying, Selling and Related Work

This career area includes:

  • buying, retail and sales work
  • call centre work
  • work in consumer services, including trading standards.
It does not include warehousing – you will find this is in the career area ‘Transport and Distribution’.

Buying, selling and related work is one of the biggest employers in Scotland. In retail alone there are 255,000 workers in Scotland, 14% of the total private sector workforce. It is one of the most dynamic industries in Scotland, accounting for 15% of all new business formed in 2013 (including the wholesale sector). Scotland has 23,500 retail outlets and Glasgow is the second biggest shopping destination in the UK, with £2.55 billion spent each year. It is predicted that around 15,000 new retail jobs will be created in Scotland by 2017, and another 98,000 jobs needing to be filled due to people leaving the sector. There are over 400 call centres in Scotland, employing around 90,000 people. Call centres employ 1 in 30 of Scotland's central belt working population. If you want to be part of this career area, you should be a ‘people person’. You need to get on well with other people, from all backgrounds. You should be friendly and a good listener. You should be willing to answer questions, to deal with complaints and be able to work calmly, even when it is busy.

There are lots of ways into these jobs. You can start some straight from school with few or no qualifications. If you do this you might be able to work your way up to a more responsible job — perhaps from retail assistant to retail manager. If you go in with no qualifications you can take Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) while you are working. You might also be able to get into some jobs through a Modern Apprenticeship. For other jobs, such as a purchasing officer or medical sales representative, you may need a Higher National Certificate (HNC), Higher National Diploma (HND) or a degree before you start. The jobs and courses in this career area are split into 4 sectors:

  • Buying
  • Call centres
  • Consumer services
  • Retail and sales.

Sources

Skillsmart Retail Scotland Careers Adviser IAG Fact Sheet 2012

BPO Key Facts - Scottish Development International website 2014 (http://www.sdi.co.uk/)

Scottish Retail Consortium website 2014 (http://www.brc.org.uk/src_home.asp)

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