What you will learn on this page:
Maybe you enjoy building Ikea flat packs, baking cakes, styling your friend's hair or taking apart your bike and rebuilding it - there are lots of different careers that need people who are good at practical tasks.
Being a practical person can also mean that you may enjoy more active roles and be good at problem solving to get things done.
Practical jobs may require you to also be physically fit, like roles in the Armed Forces or firefighting. Other jobs may require you to have specific skills for example, a make-up consultant will need creativity, an engineer will need technical problem solving skills and as a chef you will need good time management skills.
Lots of practical people run their own business or are self employed.
A selection of jobs
Tap any job below to see the full career profile on the National Careers Service website – including what the job involves, what it pays, and how to get into it.
Explore more jobs and job sectors
Check out more than 800 other job profiles, the above list is just a selection of jobs where creativity will be greatly valued, there will be loads more!
These job sectors might be good places to start if you want to be practical in your working life, click on the job profiles to find out the details.
How can you develop your practical skills
- Check which GCSEs or Post 16 qualifications your school is offering and look at what will suit you and which ones offer practical learning and assessment.
- Start or develop a practical interest in something you like to do outside of school. Some careers like medicine, engineering, the police use practical tasks in their interviews.
- Develop your practical skills and interests by setting yourself a challenge to make, build or fix something. There are lots of 'how to do' videos on Youtube. Be proud of your work and build a portfolio of before and after DIY jobs or hair dos that you can use in an interview.
- Volunteer to help to develop your skills further - eg. football coaching younger players, offering to help at Brownies/cubs, or help support charities with practical roles such as cooking and serving meals for the elderly lunch group.
- Look for practical work experience opportunities to develop your communication, teamwork and problem solving skills.
What to do next?
Explore different job sectors and find out more about practical roles. Look at different routes into these jobs. If you are a practical person you may prefer to go to college at 16 and do a job related course such as T level or you may want to investigate apprenticeships - many of these are available at all levels including Degree Apprenticeships.
