Start a career in Leisure, fitness -find jobs

Leisure is a huge industry as it represents 9% of UK employment and provides one in five jobs for 16-25 year olds. In addition to this, the sport and leisure sector as a whole currently employs 663,300 people, which accounts for around 2% of the UK workforce. It is therefore a very good industry to begin a career in as it continuously improves the country’s economic growth and proves very unlikely that there will ever be a shortage of leisure jobs.

After the London 2012 Olympic games, it is clear that the sport and leisure industry has taken off with an increasing amount of people eager to take up a sport or activity, in turn creating more and more jobs. The 2015 Rugby World Cup also promises to create thousands of leisure jobs in coaching, fitness and management, all increasing the UK’s employment rates.

The leisure industry is constantly growing due to the fact that people generally enjoy spending their spare time away from home, whether in a restaurant; drinking at a bar or a club; exercising or swimming at the leisure centre; playing sport; or at the theatre or cinema enjoying an evening out. It is therefore no surprise that the variety of leisure jobs on offer within this industry is extremely vast.

In order to begin a leisure career, you first need to decide which area best suits your skills, qualifications and interests. As it is such a vast industry, the areas of work are endless. There are jobs in fitness, sports development and personal training jobs if you are eager to begin a leisure job within the sporting industry; there are beauty and spa focused roles if you are interested in well-being and beauty; as well as restaurant, bar and hotel jobs if you want to get into the catering and hospitality sector.

Although there are a great variety of areas to consider, there are a few personality traits that are required for all leisure jobs therefore you need to ensure that you possess these before even thinking about a career in leisure. As ‘leisure’ generally means ‘activities away from home’, it is likely that the role will be customer facing. You therefore need to ensure that you are professional, confident and able to deal with queries in a calm and considerate manner. Leisure work is also mainly shift work therefore at times may require you to work early mornings, late nights, weekends or during holiday periods when times are likely to be busy. This is perfect if you are still at school, college or University and looking to gain work experience that can be placed around your studies.

When writing your CV specifically for a job in leisure, ensure that you focus on your skills, qualifications and interests. If a leisure job is going to be your first role, ensure your CV focuses on your skills and personality traits, which prove why you would work well within this industry. LeisureJobs has thousands of jobs at all levels and can help you with your job search and CV-Library, one of the UK's leading job boards can offer advice on how to write and format your CV for your next leisure jobs.