Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Katie has a very big job title: she is a Financial planning and analysis director.

What does she actually do? Imagine you are trying to save up your pocket money for something special. You need a plan to know how much you have and how much you need to save. Katie does this, but for a whole company!

• She makes the plan: Her job is to make sure the business knows exactly what the plan is.

• She counts the money: She figures out how much profit (extra money) the business makes around the world and how much cash will end up in their bank account.

What is her day like? You might think she just looks at numbers all day, but she actually does a mix of things:

• Talking to people: Katie chats to lots of different people to find out what is going on so she can update her plan.

• Using the computer: Once she has the information, she sits at her computer and puts it all into spreadsheets (which are like big digital charts).

Did she always know she wanted this job? No! When Katie was at school, she didn’t really know what she wanted to do. She just thought business was interesting because it helps you learn about what is happening in the world and inside different companies.

After school, she went to university and trained to become a chartered accountant (a money expert).

Why does she stay there? Katie has worked at the same company for a long time- 13 years! She has done lots of different jobs there, which helped her learn new skills. She likes it because everyone is really friendly and helpful.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Amber has a very important job title: she is an IT security and compliance analyst. That sounds complicated, but it basically means she is like a security guard for computers!

What does she do? Amber keeps people safe on the internet. She stops hackers (the bad guys online) from getting into computer systems.

What is her day like? Amber sits at a desk in front of a computer all day. She spends her time helping people who have questions about how to keep their business safe and secure.

How did she get her job? When Amber left school at 17, she didn’t just go to university; she did something called an apprenticeship. This means she learned her skills while doing the job. She worked her way up the ladder to become an expert in IT security.

Amber says the very best thing about her job is the people she works with- she reckons she has the best team in the world!

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Ian. He has a very important job as an IT Security Manager. You can think of him as a digital security guard!

What Does He Do? Ian is in charge of keeping chemical plants safe from people who try to break into computers, known as hackers. He works at a company called Venator.

Every day, Ian leads a team of people who act like computer detectives. Here is what they do:

• They watch the computer systems to spot anything that looks wrong or strange.

• They look for gaps in the computer’s armour (protections) to fix them.

• They learn about new tricks that hackers might use so they can stop them before they happen.

How Did He Get This Job? Ian worked hard to become an expert. After he left school, he went to college and did an apprenticeship (where you learn while you work) in computer support.

Before he worked at the chemical plant, he had a job with the NHS (the National Health Service). While he was there, he took more tests to learn about computer networks and security. Even now, he keeps taking courses to learn more.

Ian says the best thing about his job is the challenge of keeping the big chemical plant safe and secure from cyber attacks. He also really likes the excellent people he gets to work with every day.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Kiera! She works as a stores and procurement apprentice, which is a big name for a very busy and exciting job.

Here is what Kiera does every day:

• Helping People: She works in a “store” (which is like a big warehouse or supply room) and hands out things that workers need, like safety gear (called PPE).

• Organising Deliveries: When big lorries arrive with packages for the site, Kira is the one who takes in the deliveries and makes sure everything goes to the right place.

• Staying Busy: She is always on the move, running up and down stairs and talking on the phone to suppliers (the people who sell things to her company).

Kiera says the best part of her job is that she gets to talk to lots of different people every single day. Her job is never boring because she deals with all sorts of things. One day she might be ordering stationery, like pens and paper, and the next day she might be talking to someone about giant cranes!

She chose this job because every day is different, which makes it much more exciting than working in an office doing maths all day.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Bradley! He has a very important job looking after money at a company called AV Dawson.

Here is what his day looks like:

• He is an Apprentice: This means Bradley is learning how to do his job while he works there.

• Bradley has always loved working with numbers. He even thought about being an engineer once, but he decided that working with the “maths” side of things was better for him.

• When other people sell things to his company, they send a note called an invoice to say how much it costs. Bradley looks at these notes and makes sure the people get paid every week.

• He sits at a desk on the second floor with two big screens. One screen is for his emails, and the other is full of numbers and special programs to help him do his work.

Bradley says his company is like a big family. Everyone is very kind, and they really care about the people who work there, which makes him feel very happy to be at his desk every day.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Daniel, who has a very exciting job as a plant electrician at a company called AV Dawson. Being an electrician means he works with electricity to make sure everything has power and works safely.

Daniel is like a real-life helper for big machines. Here are some of the cool things he does:

• Fixing Giant Cranes: He works in special rooms full of buttons and wires called panel rooms to make sure the big cranes are working properly.

• Lighting the Way: He puts up bright LED lights so that everyone can see what they are doing.

• Variety: He works on everything from big industrial machines to things you might find in a normal house.

To get this job, Daniel went to college to get special qualifications. He also did an apprenticeship, which is a clever way to learn a job by practicing it while you study. He says that at his work, every day is different, so he never gets bored. Because AV Dawson is a family business, he feels very lucky because they look after him very well.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Harry, who has a very exciting job as a plant electrician at a place called AV Dawson! His main job is to look after all the electrical parts of the big machines and the buildings around him.

Think of Harry like a machine detective. When a giant machine stops working, he has to find out what is wrong with its “brain” or its wires—this is called fault finding. He also does things you might see around your own home or school, like fitting lights and putting in power sockets so that things can be plugged in and turned on.

Before he started this job, Harry studied and trained to understand how electronics and electricity work. He got his job through people he knew at the company, but he had to learn all the special skills first.

The best part about Harry’s job is that every single day is a new adventure. He says he is never doing the same thing twice, which means there are always new challenges to solve. He is always busy making sure everything stays powered up and running smoothly!

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Have you ever wondered who helps move all the big things that come into the country on massive ships? Meet Aaron, who is a port operative apprentice! This means he is learning a very important job at a busy port where ships arrive from all over the world.

Aaron works with huge overhead cranes to move heavy pieces of steel around and put them into big metal boxes called containers. One of his most important jobs is being a ‘banksman’. This means he is the person who watches very carefully to make sure the steel goes into the containers safely so that nobody gets hurt.

To get this cool job, Aaron saw an advert at a job centre and went to a special college course for a week. He even got a safety pass to show he knew how to stay safe at work, and after an interview, he got the job!

Aaron says he really enjoys his work because every day is different. He gets to see different ships coming in and he is always doing something new.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Lea, who works as a trainee architect (her official title is a “part one architectural assistant”) for a company called Logic Architecture. On a normal day, she helps the other architects draw plans and design new spaces, like rooms or buildings.

Because she is still training, she doesn’t make the big decisions herself yet, but she treats her job like a fun exercise where she learns all the secret technical details of how a building is put together. Lea almost chose a very different job- she nearly became a dentist!. However, once she saw the architecture drawings her friend was making, she thought they were amazing and knew right away that she wanted to design buildings instead.

When Lea was in school in Romania, she did not even take art classes. Instead, she studied Maths, Science, and the Romanian language. To follow her dream, she spent all her free time outside of school training to be an architect.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Ryu, who has a very cool job as an apprentice lab technician. This means he is learning how to be a scientist while he is actually doing the work.

Here is what Ryu does and how he got there:

• Making New Things: Ryu works with “new materials”. He looks for ways to replace plastic or make parts for buildings that are extra light but also very strong.

• Life in the Lab: He spends most of his time (about two-thirds of the week) in a science lab doing experiments. The rest of his time is spent in an office, where he writes down what happened in the lab and has meetings with his team to plan what to do next.

• Learning by Doing: After Ryu finished Sixth Form (where you go after you turn 16), he decided he didn’t want to just sit in a classroom and study. He preferred “learning on the job,” so he started an apprenticeship where he can work and learn at the same time.

• Lots of Variety: Because Ryu works on many different projects at once, his week is always full of different tasks. This keeps his job very exciting and interesting!

Ryu’s job is a bit like being a professional Lego builder. Instead of just reading the instruction manual to learn how bricks work, he is in the workshop actually snapping new types of pieces together to see if they can build a stronger tower than anyone has ever seen before.

Spark Tees Valley

In Summary:

Meet Jessica! She is a student at a university who is spending time working in a real science lab to learn how to be an expert.

Jessica works with a team that looks at the “materials” (the stuff things are made of) to build and test batteries. Her main job is to try to make batteries that are even better and stronger than the ones we have right now.

Here is how she became a scientist:

• She started young: When she was in secondary school (the big school you go to after primary school), she realised she really loved her science classes.

• She stayed curious: She started reading science magazines and papers because she found them so exciting.

• She took action: Because she enjoyed it so much, she decided that this was exactly what she wanted to do for a job.

Jessica says that working in a lab is great because every day is different, which means it is never boring.

Think of Jessica’s job like being a master LEGO builder. Instead of just following the instructions that come in the box, she is trying to find new ways to put the bricks together to make a battery that lasts longer and works better than any of the ones we’ve seen before!