Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Gemma: The Nature Guardian

Gemma has a very important job called an Environment and Sustainability Manager.

Where does she work? Gemma works at a big industrial site (a place where things are built or made). But this place is special because it also has woods, fields, and streams running through it.

What does she do? Gemma’s main goal is to make sure the work happening at the site doesn’t hurt the planet. She tries to have a positive impact on nature. Here is what her day looks like:

• She acts like a scientist: She collects clues (data) from around the site. She checks if there is too much dust in the air and measures how loud the noise is.

• She checks the water: She takes samples of the water to make sure the streams are clean.

• She looks after wildlife: She works with animal experts to see what creatures are living in the fields and woods.

• She checks for litter: She walks around to make sure the site is tidy and there isn’t too much rubbish lying around.

• She is a rule-keeper: Just like you have rules at school, there are laws to protect the environment. Gemma checks that everyone is following these laws perfectly.

How did she get this job?

• University: She went to Leeds Uni to study Earth System Science.

• Volunteering: She spent time volunteering (helping out for free). She helped fix hedges and worked on landscapes for different councils.

What is the best part? Gemma says her favourite thing is going into the woods on a sunny day. She loves checking the bat boxes and bird boxes to see what animals are living inside them.

Could you do this job? To be like Gemma, you need to:

• Really love nature and be enthusiastic about it.

• Be happy working outside, even when it is raining!.

• Be good at talking to people so you can explain how to look after the environment.

Think of it like this: Gemma is like a health inspector for the planet. Just like a doctor checks your temperature and listens to your heart to make sure you aren’t sick, Gemma checks the air, water, and soil to make sure the environment stays healthy and strong.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet David. He has a very exciting job working at a mine, but he doesn’t spend his day digging for rocks! Instead, he works as a Communications Officer, which means he helps share news and information with people.

Here are the cool things David gets to do at work:

• He flies drones: David uses a drone to fly over the site and take amazing videos and photographs.

• He is a designer: He uses computers to create graphic designs. This includes making colourful adverts for schools and competitions, as well as safety signs to tell people what protective gear (PPE) to wear.

• He helps local teams: David helps local groups, like football teams and dance clubs, fill out forms so they can get money to help them run.

• He talks to people: A huge part of his job is chatting with people, either face-to-face or on social media.

How did he get this job? David went to college and university to learn about graphic design, web design, and photography. He used to work on a farm and took photos for himself, but then he saw this job on social media and applied for it. He wants people to know that you can find creative jobs, like drawing or flying drones, in surprising places like a mine.

Why does he love it? David says the best bit is that he is getting paid to do his hobbies. He also loves working with very clever people who know all about rocks (geology) and laws, so he learns something new every day.

Think of it like this: Imagine if you loved drawing pictures and playing with remote-controlled helicopters at the park, and then one day, someone told you that could be your job when you grow up. That is what David gets to do every day!

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Who is Sam and what does he do? Sam is a manager at a company called Abacus Bean. Part of his job is looking after the younger members of his team to make sure they are doing okay. He also does a lot of accounting work, which involves organising money records (bookkeeping) and sorting out taxes (VAT returns) for businesses.

Is it all just maths? Not at all! You might think accountants need to be wizards at really hard sums, but Sam says that as long as you can add, subtract, and use a calculator, you can be an accountant.

Actually, the most important skill for Sam is communication (talking and listening). He spends a lot of time chatting with customers to understand their problems so he can fix them. He also talks to his team to help them if they are stuck on anything.

How did he get this job? When Sam was at school, he didn’t know what he wanted to be, but he knew he didn’t want to go to university. Instead, he did an apprenticeship. This is a special way of learning where you earn money while you learn the job. Sam thinks this was a great choice because he learned real skills without having to borrow lots of money to pay for university.

What is the best part? Sam really likes the feeling of finishing a tricky piece of work. However, his absolute favourite thing about the job is helping people.

Think of it like this: Doing an apprenticeship is a bit like learning to play football by joining a team and playing in real matches, rather than just reading a book about the rules. Sam learned by doing, and now he helps businesses keep score!

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Tom, a young man who is training to become an accountant. Being a trainee means he is still learning the job, and it will take him about four or five years to become fully trained.

Tom spends his day working on important tasks like tax returns, looking after small accounts, and dealing with invoices (which are papers that ask for payment). Because he works with numbers and makes calculations all day, Tom says you need to have very good maths skills. It is also important to have good communication skills so he can talk clearly to his clients and the people he works with.

Tom chose this job because he was always good at maths at school, so it made sense for him. He really enjoys it because the people in his office are nice and friendly, which makes it a happy place to work.

Think of it like this: An accountant is like the scorekeeper for a business- but instead of counting goals in a football match, they count the money to make sure the score is always right!

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Maria! She works as a Senior Accountant, which means she helps businesses look after their money.

Here is what Maria does in her job:

• She helps companies organise their money: Maria does things like bookkeeping (which is like keeping a diary of all the money a business spends and earns) and handles VAT returns (sorting out taxes for the government).

• She uses cool tools: If you looked over her shoulder, you would see her using computer programs like Excel and accounting software called zero.

• She talks to people: She doesn’t just sit alone; she works with different clients every day, sends lots of emails, and meets many people.

Why does she do it? Maria chose this job because she really enjoys numbers. She believes that you can solve everything with numbers. She loves her workplace because everyone is amazing and very social.

How did she become an accountant? Maria did not go to university. Instead, she did an apprenticeship straight after school. This is a special way in the UK to learn a job while you are actually doing it. She has been working there for over five years now.

Think of it like this: Imagine Maria is like the scorekeeper for a football match. Just like a scorekeeper writes down the goals to check who is winning, Maria writes down all the numbers for a business to check if they are “winning” with their money and playing by the rules.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Louise! She has a really cool job.

Louise Shaw works for a company called Abacus Bean as a Marketing and Business Development Manager.

What does she actually do? Louise says her job is all about making sure people know who her company is and persuading them to work with them. She says her work is very different every day, which is one of the best things about it.

Here are some of the fun things she gets to do:

• Being Creative: She designs graphics and makes animations for social media.

• Planning Events: She organises fun events and parties.

• Meeting People: She goes out for coffee or dinner to meet clients- this is called “networking”.

• Filming: sometimes she visits clients to make videos about them.

• Strategy: Before she does the creative bits, she has to do a lot of research and planning (like doing homework before you play) to make sure her ideas will work.

What skills do you need? Louise says it helps to be a “people person”. In fact, her nickname at work is “Social Bean” because she is constantly being social and chatting with everyone. You also need to be creative.

Did she always want to do this? Not really! Louise took a long path to get here. She went to university to study Law, but she quickly realised she didn’t want to be a lawyer. She spent some time working in sales and realised she loved working with people and being creative, which led her to this job.

Why she loves her job:

• The Team: She works with a small group of people who are very close.

• Her Boss: Her boss is flexible and trusts her to do her work without checking on her all the time, which makes her feel like she is doing her best work.

• It’s Fun: She says the team makes it really good fun to come to work every single day.

Think of it like this: Imagine you are organising the best school disco ever. You have to design cool posters so everyone knows about it (that’s the marketing and graphics), you have to go around the playground inviting your friends (that’s the networking), and you have to plan what music will play so everyone has a good time (that’s the strategy). Louise does this kind of planning and creating for her company every day!

Spark Tees Valley

In summary:

Meet Matthew! He has a very important job at a place called J&B Recycling.

Matthew is a Health and Safety Officer. You can think of him as a safety hero who makes sure nobody gets hurt while they are working at the recycling centre.

Here is what Matthew does every day:

• He writes the rules: Matthew writes down special instructions called “risk assessments”. These are like guidebooks that tell the workers exactly how to do their jobs properly and safely.

• He keeps people safe: His main goal is to make sure everyone follows the rules so they can stay happy and healthy at work.

• He works with friends: Matthew says that the people he works with are really friendly, and they often have a good laugh together while they get their work done!

Matthew started learning about safety in his old job about a year ago. He liked it so much that he decided he wanted to do it every single day. Now, he loves coming to work to look after his team.

Spark Tees Valley

In summary:

Meet Mark! He has a very important and busy job helping to look after waste and recycling.

Mark is a Commercial Manager. Here is what he does every day:

• Finding New Jobs: He looks for new work for his company and works closely with local councils (the people who help collect your bins!).

• Selling Materials: He sells the materials they collect to lots of different organisations and even to other countries.

• Following the Rules: Mark has to make sure his company is kind to the planet. He works with the Environment Agency to make sure they are following all the rules to keep the environment safe.

Mark has worked in the waste industry for a very long time- over 25 years! Before he started this job, he worked in pest control, which means he helped deal with things like bugs or mice.

He didn’t always know he wanted to work with waste and recycling, but he has stayed for 13 years because he loves it. He says the best part of his job is that every day is different, and it is never boring!

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Anna! Anna has a very important job as an employment solicitor.

What does she do? Imagine you own a big toy shop or a bakery. Anna’s job is to help the people who run those businesses. She helps them manage the people who work for them (called employees) and gives them advice on how to run their business well. She also helps with something called data protection, which is a way of keeping your private and secret information safe so that nobody else can see it.

How did she get there? After Anna finished school, she went to college and studied Law because she really, really liked it. Her parents gave her some great advice: they told her to do what she enjoyed because it is very hard to know exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life when you are only 18 years old. After college, she went to university to study more. She says that there are many different ways to get a job like hers, including going to university or doing an apprenticeship (where you learn while you work).

The best part of her job: Anna loves that every single day is different. When she goes into her office, she never knows exactly what she will be doing that day. She works with many different types of companies in a place called the Tees Valley. Because every business is run in its own special way, the advice she gives them has to be special, too. This variety is what makes her job so much fun!

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Gary, an electrical engineer! His job is very important because he designs anything that has a wire attached to it.

Here is what Gary does to help build the places where we live and work:

• He designs lights and power: Gary plans where the lights go and how the electricity gets to them.

• He keeps us safe: He designs fire alarms and emergency lighting to make sure everyone stays safe in a building.

• He uses cool technology: Gary uses special computer programs (called CAD) to make 3D models. These models show him exactly how the lighting will look and make sure the cables are the right size before the work even starts.

Gary didn’t start as an expert; when he left school, he went to a place called TTE to be an apprentice. This means he got to learn his trade while working. During his training, he did a six-week course on computer design and liked it so much that he decided to make it his career! He says it is very satisfying to see a finished project once all the lights are finally turned on.

Think of a building like a giant robot. Gary is the person who draws the map for the robot’s “nerves” (the wires). He makes sure the “eyes” (the lights) are bright enough and that the “brain” (the fire alarm) is ready to wake up if there is trouble!

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Alison, who works in a place called Middlesbrough. Her job title is electrical estimator, but she started her career as an electrician.

When Alison first left school, she worked on building sites installing electrical systems (like wires and lights) into all sorts of buildings. Now, she spends most of her time in an office, where she designs these electrical systems herself. She also works out the price for everything so that customers know exactly how much the work will cost.

To learn how to do this, Alison did an apprenticeship. This meant she spent six weeks at a time working on a building site, followed by two weeks at college to learn the science behind how electricity works.

Even though she works in an office now, her favourite part of the job is still visiting the sites where the work is happening. She says it is great fun, even if it gets a bit cold in the winter!

Think of Alison’s job like being a master LEGO builder: first, she was the person putting the bricks together on the floor, but now she is the one who draws the instructions and counts exactly how many bricks are needed before the building starts.