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August 8, 2023
Don’t fancy getting stuck with thousands of pounds of student loan debt? You’re not alone. Many school leavers are turning their back on degrees in favour of on the job experience. If you’re itching to start your career and don’t want to have to spend 3-4 years in education to get there, you might be interested in learning more about potential career paths that don’t require a degree.
A degree can be great for some people, particularly if they know exactly what they want to do in life. But others can find further education after college stifling. Choosing a degree sets you on a particular path and it might be difficult to pivot away from this in the future.
The good news is that not having a degree doesn’t have to limit your job choices – or your earning potential. On the job learning, apprenticeships, and other training routes mean that you can get started in your new career without the wait.
While there are often degree routes into these careers, this isn’t always required, so you could change careers later in life or choose your own path after leaving college that doesn’t include university. Read on to learn more about the average salary in the UK, and how you can find a high paying job without a degree.
To understand where these roles stand in relation to other jobs, we first need to understand the UK national average. According to the Office for National Statistics, the UK mean average salary in 2020 was £38,600. And the median salary in 2020 – which many say is a better representation of actual conditions – was £31,461.
Education levels are supposed to be linked to salary, with those holding an undergraduate degree earning around 130% more than those with no qualifications. However, don’t let this data hold you back. There are plenty of job options that will allow you to earn in excess of the UK average. Let’s explore some of these career paths and the earning potential in more detail…
Starting salary: £17,000
Average salary: £51,929
Top salary: £100,000+
Air traffic controllers don’t always have to have a degree. The selection process is more about the skills and experience needed to keep air traffic safe. The entry process is controlled by an organisation called NATS, and they will put you through specific training programmes to determine if you have what it takes. If you’re able to focus for long periods of time and have excellent reasoning skills, you could earn well above the UK average salary as an air traffic controller.
Starting salary: £20,000
Average salary: £57,086
Top salary: £70,000+
Penetration testers are sometimes known as ethical hackers. They test computer and network security systems by “hacking” them for the good guys. This helps companies to spot vulnerabilities in their systems. Many penetration testers are self-taught and hired for their skills and experience, not for their qualifications.
Starting salary: £24,000
Average salary: £40,843
Top salary: £140,000+
Did you know that commercial pilots don’t always need a degree to get to where they are? Common routes into the airline industry often require gaining experience in the air on light aircraft. The training is extensive, but the earring potential is huge.
Starting salary: £26,000
Average salary: £53,972
Top salary: £85,000
Managing a construction site doesn’t require a degree, but it does require a unique set of skills. You’ll need to have a good attention to detail and the ability to juggle multiple demands at once. Most construction managers work their way up into the role by showing they know their stuff in various construction roles.
Starting salary: £21,402
Average salary: £32,915
Top salary: £60,732
This is a surprise addition on the list that most people are caught off guard about. Most police officers start by joining the force in junior roles and then work their way up. While there are degrees you could study in subjects like criminology, nothing beats on the job experience when it comes to being an effective police officer.
Starting salary: £22,000
Average salary: £28,003
Top salary: £45,000
As a nutrition coach, you’ll help individuals to make better choices in the kitchen. You might be helping individuals to lose weight, helping athletes to fuel their training, or helping those with special dietary concerns to make sure they are getting everything they need from their diet. It’s an incredibly varied role, and one that will require some specialist training. But the training is much shorter than a degree programme and will be flexible around your life.
Starting salary: £20,000
Average salary: £36,009
Top salary: £60,000
Electricians are always in demand, so this is one future-proof career option that you could get started with at any time. Many electricians get into this sector through apprenticeships and other training opportunities, but you don’t need a degree to demonstrate your skills. You could be working for a large company, or you could use your skills to build a freelance career. As a freelancer, you’ll have more flexibility, but you’ll also be responsible for generating all of your own business.
Starting salary: £20,000
Average salary: £32,568
Top salary: £60,000
Like electricians, plumbers are also perpetually in demand. You could work your work into this sector as an assistant and learn on the job, or you could take a more formal learning route and study at college to pick up the essential skills you’ll need. If you plan to work on gas appliances, you’ll need to get on the Gas Safe register, and this can take a little more time and effort. But your effort will be rewarded, as you can earn more money this way. Work for a plumbing company, or take the freelance route if you fancy being your own boss.
Starting salary: £21,000
Average salary: £27,450
Top salary: £60,000
Large organisations require network administrators to keep their phones, computers and other devices connected. While you could study computer science to land this role, there are ways you can move into this position without a degree. Many network administrators start by gaining experience in other areas, such as an IT specialist or help desk technician. From there, you can expand your skills, undergo additional training, and move your way up in an organisation.
Starting salary: £20,000
Average salary: £36,439
Top salary: £45,000
Working in building management as a lift installer or repairer will always be a lucrative field. Lifts are utilised in many buildings throughout the country and they often break down. You might be required to provide remote assistance if passengers are stuck, or attend to lifts if they are out of commission. You can study to learn how to install and repair lifts as part of an apprenticeship, which means you can earn while you learn. This removes an important barrier that many people face when it comes to selecting a new career path.
Starting salary: £17,000
Average salary: £27,044
Top salary: £45,000
IT support specialists work for larger organisations and provider workers advice and troubleshooting support to keep things running smoothly. Not everyone is proficient with computers, and when something goes wrong, employees need to know they can call on someone with the skills and knowledge to help them. As an IT support specialist, you can often work your way into this role through experience alone. You might want to study a college course in something like ICT Systems Support to help get you started.
Starting salary: £17,000
Average salary: £36,638
Top salary: £50,000+
An executive assistant is sometimes known as a personal assistant. They are often employed by high-level C-suite professionals to help with administrative support. You might be answering calls and emails, booking travel or running errands. You can often find your way into a high-paying administrative assistant role by starting as a second assistant and working your way up. If you are diligent and have a keen eye for detail, you should have no problems progressing in this role.
Starting salary: £27,055
Average salary: £56,978
Top salary: £65,000
Dental hygienists support dental staff to help ensure patients’ teeth are healthy and clean. They will support dentists during procedures, carry out scale and polish cleanings, and offer personalised advice and support to help patients care for their teeth from home. You don’t need a degree to become a dental hygienist, but you will need to study a course approved by the General Dental Council. You could progress to become a treatment coordinator or practice manager if you excel in your role.
Starting salary: £14,000
Average salary: £23,566
Top salary: £55,000
A paralegal supports a legal team and provides administrative support to help prepare cases and organise documents. You don’t have to be studying law to work as a paralegal, but it can be a popular route to deciding what you want to study later in life. To be a paralegal, you’ll need to have excellent communication and organisational skills. If you are working with a top law firm and they rely on you to manage their caseloads, then you can expect to be rewarded accordingly for your work.
Starting salary: £27,000
Average salary: £35,147
Top salary: £47,000
Court reporters are an essential part of the legal process. They sit in court and create a written record of everything that is said. You’ll need to be able to focus for long periods of time and use short-hand stenographers to create the transcript. While this is a highly specialised skill, you won’t need a degree to get started in this field.
Starting salary: £24,191
Average salary: £29,386
Top salary: £61,667
If you’re strong, active and incredibly brave, you might consider a career as a firefighter. We’ll always need them, so it’s another future-proof career option. You’ll go through extensive training to check if you have what it takes to become a firefighter. This will include physically demanding work alongside learning the skills you need to stay safe during active duty.
Starting salary: £22,000
Average salary: £27,000
Top salary: £38,000
Prison officers need to be mentally tough to put up with the demands of the job, but it can also be a very rewarding career path. You’ll be tasked with keeping prisons secure and safe for inmates, while also looking out for their wellbeing. This could mean supporting them to study or access rehabilitation services. You don’t need a degree to become a prison officer and can often get started in an entry level role and then work your way up to a more senior position.
Starting salary: £21,730
Average salary: £24,066
Top salary: £26,282
Emergency dispatchers are responsible for answering emergency calls for the police, ambulance and fire service. You’ll need to be able to stay calm under pressure and juggle a lot of different demands. While this might sound like a complex job, you don’t need a degree or any specific qualifications to get started. You’ll usually start in a trainee position and work your way up as you become more experienced.
Starting salary: £20,000
Average salary: £30,333
Top salary: £100,000+
As an estate agent, you’ll be responsible for selling homes and other properties on behalf of the owners. You’ll often be responsible for things like helping to set the asking price, photographing the property, listing it online and arranging viewings. You’ll need to be excellent with people and have strong sales skills. You don’t need a degree to get started in this sector, but many graduates find their way into this type of work when they aren’t sure what to do next.
Starting salary: £20,000
Average salary: £27,250
Top salary: £37,000
Sheet metal workers will always be in demand as long as we have manufacturing industries operating in the UK. As a sheet metal worker, you might be tasked with building things from thin metal sheets such as heating ducts or air conditioning unit components. You don’t need a degree, but you will need some specialist training to allow you to do this job safely.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £23,565
Top salary: £39,000
Translators are essential in a wide range of industries. You might be translating websites, business documents or even novels. To become a translator without a degree, you’ll need to be fluent in 2 or more languages. You’ll also need to have excellent attention to detail and organisational skills, as you will often be responsible for your own workload. You might work for a larger agency or provide translation skills on a freelance basis.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £36,820
Top salary: £45,000
Technical writers are copywriters that work in highly specialised fields. Some technical writers, such as medical copywriters, will need a degree to do their role. But some technical fields don’t need a degree, just experience and the knowledge to produce accurate copy. The most common way to get started in this sector is in an assistant or junior role. You can then work your way up to become a more senior copywriter.
Starting salary: £21,500
Average salary: £27,247
Top salary: £40,000
As an insurance sales agent, you will be responsible for helping individuals and companies to find the insurance products they need. You’ll need to be great with people and have excellent sales experience, but you won’t need a degree to prove these skills. You can work your way up from an assistant role and you could eventually be earning in excess of £40,000. It’s also fairly common for this type of role to offer performance based bonuses, so your earning potential could be even bigger.
Starting salary: £28,288
Average salary: £39,460
Top salary: £68,000
Sales managers are needed in a wide range of roles. If there is something you are passionate about and you have the knowledge and expertise to be able to sell this to anyone, there is no reason you can’t be a successful sales manager. You don’t need to go to university or have a degree to succeed in this field, you just need excellent communication skills and sales skills to make this role work for you. As a regional sales manager, you could be earning in excess of £60,000.
Starting salary: £16,000
Average salary: £29,038
Top salary: £60,000
Fitness trainers or personal trainers are responsible for creating fitness programmes that help individuals to get in shape. You could be working with athletes or normal people to create training plans to meet their goals. Personal trainers will need some specialised training, but this isn’t as extensive as a degree programme. Once qualified, you could work for a gym group, or you could start your own self employed fitness training company.
Starting salary: £15,000
Average salary: £31,980
Top salary: £40,000
If you’re good behind the wheel and excellent at teaching, you might make a great driving instructor. Driving instructors need to be calm in stressful situations and be able to quickly build a rapport with their students. You don’t need a degree to be a driving instructor, but you will need to take an official exam to show that you know the rules of the road and can therefore teach them safely.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £27,989
Top salary: £85,000
Fashion designers might work for high street fast fashion brands, or they might work for high end brands. It’s also common for fashion designers to start their own brands and make a name for themselves. While you will need a lot of creativity and originality to become a successful fashion designer, a degree isn’t always required. You could work your way up to becoming a designer by starting in an assistant role.
Starting salary: £16,000
Average salary: £27,775
Top salary: £55,000
If you have a passion for food and love a fast-paced work environment, you could have a lucrative career as a chef. You could be working in a high street chain, an independent restaurant or even run your own place. Many chefs get to where they are by working their way up the ranks in a restaurant. This could mean starting out washing pots until there is a line cook role available. This will allow you to be around the kitchen environment and learn as much as you can about the skills and knowledge chefs are expected to have.
Average salary: £21,061
Why have we excluded the starting and top salary for a musician? Simply because the sector is so varied and competitive, and it’s difficult to say with certainty what you might be able to earn. Some musicians do it for the love of music alone and never really make a living out of their passion, but some are able to piece together a career by taking a commercial approach. You could form a wedding band, secure a spot on an orchestra, or join a touring live band for an already established act. While you might not need a degree, you will certainly need talent and dedication.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £26,921
Top salary: £70,000
If you’re passionate about TV and film and want to work behind the scenes, a career as a film and video editor could be ideal for you. While many film and video editors get started by studying courses like media and communications, this isn’t always a prerequisite. If you can teach yourself the skills you need and then work your way up from an assistant role, then you have a good chance of entering this industry without a degree. Once you’re in, you can use your contacts to move into your next role.
Starting salary: £20,000
Average salary: £32,360
Top salary: £60,000
If you’re always online and have your finger on the pulse of the latest trends, you can be confident you’ll make an excellent social media manager. If you’re keen to make your way into this field, you don’t have to pick up a university prospectus just yet. While a degree in marketing might help, there are plenty of skills you can pick up on your own that will make you an excellent social media manager. This includes graphic design, video shooting and editing, and analysing statistics. You could work for a company in-house, or you could build your portfolio and offer your skills on a freelance basis.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £27,265
Top salary: £60,000+
Graphic designers might be worried about the rise of AI, but they shouldn’t give up on their career choices just yet. If you have an eye for design and love to express difficult concepts through smart design, you could build a career as a designer based on your experience alone. For design roles, your portfolio is often more important than your qualifications. In many cases, university is just a time to learn new skills and build your portfolio, so you can save time by simply developing your skills in your own time.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £50,014
Top salary: £70,000
Software developers help to build the products that make our lives easier. You could get started as a software developer on an apprenticeship or traineeship and learn the skills you need to grow your career. Like many career choices, your experience and portfolio will be more important than your education.
Starting salary: £19,000
Average salary: £33,556
Top salary: £60,000
As a web developer, you could be building websites or web apps for companies big and small. Everyone needs an online presence these days, and there are always job openings for talented web developers. You could get started by completing short courses online, and then expand your skills in a junior web developer position. Web development is always changing, so it makes sense to approach this with a commitment to lifelong learning.
Starting salary: £19,000
Average salary: £29,289
Top salary: £34,000
Mortgage advisors are responsible for helping individuals and couples to get on the property ladder. You’ll get to know people and advise them on the best mortgage options for their situation. To succeed in this role, you’ll have to have an analytical mind to be able to read between the lines of an application and see it from the lender’s perspective. Numeracy skills are helpful, but you don’t need formal qualifications in this sector. Experience and natural people skills will take you much further.
Starting salary: £16,000
Average salary: £25,893
Top salary: £65,000
As a photographer, you might be working for the press, for brands, or even for yourself. Once you have found a sector where you excel, you can build your portfolio and gain more experience through doing. You don’t have to spend 3 years at uni taking photos to prove your worth. If you have the camera equipment you need and a supportive community, you’ll get the same experience as you would in formal education.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £25,929
Top salary: £41,000
A sports massage therapist offers a specific type of massage that helps with sports injuries and recovery. As a sports massage therapist, you might help ordinary people to deal with mobility issues, or you might help professional athletes recover from career-changing injuries. It is a highly varied role that requires passion, attention to detail and a willingness to continue to learn new things. You’ll need a sports massage qualification, but this won’t take as long to achieve as a full degree programme.
Starting salary: £24,000
Average salary: £39,686
Top salary: £48,000
As an HVAC technician, you’ll be responsible for repairing, maintaining and installing heating and air conditioning units. This is often on an industrial scale, rather than in individual homes. You don’t need a degree to get started in this field, but you can take a training course to give you the basic overview you need to get started. Once you have the basic skills you need, you could secure an assistant role and work your way up.
Starting salary: £28,500
Average salary: £30,572
Top salary: £47,000
If you have a head for heights and a passion for learning how things work, you could be an excellent wind turbine technician. Since green energy is so in demand at the moment, many companies are keen to attract workers to the sector, but they recognise there is an obvious skills gap. For this reason, there are plenty of apprenticeships and traineeships available to help encourage more people into the green energy sector.
Starting salary: £22,000
Average salary: £35,735
Top salary: £45,000
Welders are in high demand in a wide range of industries including the automotive sector, aviation and maritime. As a welder, you will use special tools to permanently fix metal structures together. You’ll learn the skills on the job and develop through traineeships and apprenticeships.
Starting salary: £22,000
Average salary: £42,295
Top salary: £80,000
As a security consultant, you will advise companies on their cyber security measures. This could mean maintaining firewalls, performing a threat analysis and implementing security tests. There are no specific entry requirements for this role, you simply need to know your stuff and be able to implement it in a professional setting. You might also need to have good people skills, as you will be dealing with a diverse set of stakeholders.
Starting salary: £19,000
Average salary: £28,761
Top salary: £60,000
Known as ‘reps’, medical sales people are responsible for travelling around hospitals and medical centres to sell products and medicines on behalf of large companies. You will need to have excellent people and sales skills to stand out in this sector. And while you don’t need a degree, you will need to have a basic grasp of the product in order to be an effective sales person.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £26,865
Top salary: £40,000
Event planners are responsible for the planning and execution of events. This could include conferences, weddings, parties and award shows. You don’t need a degree in event management to get started. You could take a short course to give you the basics and then apply for an assistant role. Once you have worked on a few events, you might be ready to run your own events on a contract or freelance basis. From there, you build a name for yourself and expand your portfolio.
Starting salary: £18,000
Average salary: £24,307
Top salary: £30,000
Hair stylists are responsible for cutting, colouring and styling hair for both men and women. You could be a general stylist and offer a bit of both, or you could specialise in one area. You’ll need to complete a Level 2 or 3 Diploma in Hairdressing to be considered for most junior stylist roles. From there, you’ll need to work your way up and build your portfolio. Social media has transformed the way many stylists do their work and can help to boost your freelance career.
Starting salary: £13,000
Average salary: £20,068
Top salary: £24,000
If you are creative and have a passion for flowers, you could have a great time working as a floral designer. You’ll create bouquets for special occasions, floral arrangements for weddings and even wreaths for funerals. Most florists get started doing a short course to learn more about working with flowers and then apply for a role with a larger company.
If you have a head for business, you could also start your own flower company and this will allow you to have greater control over when you work and what projects you take on. Like any kind of creative role, your portfolio will be more powerful than any qualification. And while the earning potential might not be as high as some of the roles on this list, there is higher earning potential for florists who own their own companies.
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