If you are a good organiser, enjoy taking responsibility and communicating with people, then a job in administration or management could be a good career for you. It is a wide ranging career area, covering many varied and interesting jobs.

Administration and management jobs exist in all industries, in both the public and private sector, so graduates of this career area are always in demand.

Across the UK, as of March 2024, around 3.16 million people work in secretarial and administration roles, a slight decrease from 3.28 million as of December 2022, while there are over 3.5 million working as managers, directors and senior officials. ¹

What areas can I work in?

The jobs and courses for this career area are in four sectors: general administration and management; economics; human resource management; and public services administration.

There are a wide range of specialisms in this career area, from medical secretarial work to academic administration in colleges and universities. You could become a personal assistant to a business director or a project manager in IT or finance.

To see the routes to getting into each of these sectors, take a look at our Career Pathway.

What kind of companies can I work for?

You could be working in just about any type of company or organisation, for example a construction firm, car dealership, hotel, local council or hospital. 

There is a large administration and management workforce in the public sector, where you could be working for: 

• The Civil Service
• local government – a local authority or council
• public bodies, such as the National Health Service (NHS), Police Scotland or the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
• Parliament (researchers and politicians)
• a college or university.

What’s the job market like?

The number of administrative and secretarial employees in Scotland has increased since December 2023, from 246,800 to 251,200 in March 2024. ²

The number of managers, directors and senior officials employed in Scotland seen an increase in the first quarter of 2024 with an increase from 204,500 in December 2023 to 212,500 in March 2024. ²

Employment numbers in the public sector have seen an ongoing increase: in December 2022, 594,500 people were working in the Scottish public sector, compared to 589,600 from the same period in 2021. ³

Facts and figures

• From the academic year 2020/21, 66.5% of Business and management studies first degree graduates found full time employment within fifteen months after graduation (compared to 61.2% the previous year). 25.3% entered as business, HR and finance professionals (an increase of 1.8% from the previous year), and a further 18.9% entered marketing, PR and sales roles.⁴
• From the same period, 63.7% of Economics graduates were in full time employment fifteen months after graduation, compared to 60.0% from the previous year. Of these, 61.9% entered as business, HR and financial professionals, compared to 58.9% in the previous year.⁴
• According to the report ‘The Graduate Market in 2024’, the starting salary for graduates in the consulting sector is £47,500.⁵
• As of December 2023, there were 502,710 full-time equivalent (FTE) civil servants – 6,595 (1.3%) more than in the previous quarter, which is the second highest quarterly growth rate since Q3 2021. There are now 19,260 (4%) more civil servants than a year ago.⁶

Want to find out more?

If you are looking for a career in the public sector, the Civil Service offers a number of routes into a career. The Fast Stream programme is open to graduates, other department graduate programmes and also apprenticeships. Visit the Civil Service website for more information.

Sources

¹ Annual Population Survey - Occupation by sex, employment status and full/part-time -  UK, NOMIS (March 2024)

² Annual Population Survey - Occupation by sex, employment status and full/part-time -  Scotland, NOMIS (March 2024)

³ Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 4th Quarter 2023, The Scottish Government Website (April 2024)

⁴ What do graduates do? Prospects/JISC in association with AGCAS (2023/24)

⁵ The Graduate Market in 2024, High Fliers Research

⁶ Civil service staff numbers, The Institute for Government website (March 2024)

Video

Career Pathway