Can you really pandemic-proof your career?
The rise in unemployment due to coronvirus means many people are now having to reassess their options, writes Rosa Silverman
James Murgatroyd was in the construction industry when the pandemic struck, and his work as an operations manager quickly dried up. He could, perhaps, have sat out the drought and waited. Instead, about a week after the first lockdown began, and at almost 50 years old, he decided to move into something completely different: teaching.
“It was the first time in my entire adult life I’d had any time to sit and think about what I wanted to do,” he says. “It was actually quite a beneficial thing for me. It was a case of thinking, realistically I’m probably going to work until I’m 70. What do I want to do? I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, but life got in the way.”
The West Yorkshire father-ofthree started retraining as a secondary school maths teacher in September, and hasn’t looked back since. Murgatroyd is one of many whose jobs have either been threatened or vanished altogether amid the Covid crisis. By June, more than a quarter of the UK workforce was being supported by the Government’s furlough scheme. In a large number of cases, it is feared this represents a postponement of the inevitable: that jobs that were viable pre-pandemic will not remain so afterwards. Unemployment in the UK increased to 4.8 per cent in the three months to September, Office for National Statistics figures show. Redundancies hit a record high of 314,000 in the same period.
Jack Kennedy, UK economist at the Indeed jobs site, says: “All the face-toface, consumer-facing sectors have been hit very hard. In a lot of cases [vacancies in these sectors] are still down about 80 to 90 per cent on this time last year.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak, while extending life support for furloughed roles until March, has been candid about what the future holds. “I can’t save every business, I can’t save every job,” he warned in September.
The message to those who believe that after the storm the landscape will look much the same as before is clear: it won’t. But there will be new opportunities. So what should you switch to, if your current occupation is no longer a safe bet?
The pandemic has seen a boom in the stay-at-home economy. We are working from home and, instead of going out, we sit at home ordering things online. If you are thinking of setting up a consumer business, delivery to customers’ homes may play a key part in your operations.
The care sector is also seeing growth, says Kennedy. “We’ve got job seekers from customer services
backgrounds who have good interpersonal skills, who can look at using those in care work,” he suggests. “There’s still a bit of a challenge around pay and conditions in the care sector but it’s certainly one area where there are still jobs available.”
IT and digital technology have also been relatively resilient, and
Kennedy says
Indeed has seen growth in demand for programmers, data engineers and software engineers.
Data analysis and digital marketing could suit those moving from a retail background, experts suggest. Linkedin Learning (linkedin.com) offers more than 16,000 expert-led courses, from £24.98 a month. Udacity (udacity.com) also offers job-focused online courses for people of all backgrounds to learn digital skills.
There are also signs of a potential “green recovery”, which could translate into more job opportunities in environment and climate-related areas. Last week, the Prime Minister pledged an extra £40 million for green spaces and conservation jobs in England, with money to fund projects restoring damaged wildlife habitats, planting new woodland and tackling pollution. Environmental awarding body Lantra (lantra.co.uk) advertises remote training and qualifications through a number of different providers.
There are other sectors, like healthcare and teaching, for which demand will not be diminished by current events, and which therefore appear to those like Murgatroyd as a reliable – and fulfilling – option. Transition to Teach (transitiontoteach. co.uk), which helps people retrain as teachers, has a revised focus this year on supporting those at risk of redundancy who wish to make the leap.
Others may seek to use their existing skills or training to move to something related to what they did previously. Nic
Young, 23, was about to move from one consumer PR role to another just as the pandemic hit. The week before he was due to start his new job, he was told it no longer existed. “I was forced to either pivot within the industry or retrain and do something different. There really aren’t that many jobs going [in PR] at the moment. So I set up my own agency,” he says.
He called it Look After Group and launched it from his home in
Fulham, west London, starting with pro bono work for charities and later turning a profit. “Doing something yourself is the biggest rollercoaster,” he says. “The highs are incredible but there are some really tough days.”
For those with bills to pay and families to support, retraining may be beyond their financial reach. However, there has been a sharp increase in the number of short courses in growth areas, offered by universities. Gerwyn Davies, senior labour market adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says: “There remain labour and skills shortages across all sectors, partly because we don’t have the skill set in the UK to fill the roles, and partly because some [sectors] are growing.”
It’s therefore wise, if you’re switching jobs or careers, to think strategically. Learning a practical skill or trade might be a way forward. “Jobseekers would do well to take a step back,” says Davies. “See what changes are taking place, and what skill sets you can bring.”