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Butchers prepare and sell meat and poultry, and make meat products like sausages, burgers and pies.
You could work: evenings / weekends / bank holidays; on a rota
On a typical day you could:
You may need to wear protective clothing and a uniform.
You could work in a factory or at a store.
Your working environment may be cool and physically demanding.
You can get into this job through:
You could do a college course, which would teach you some of the skills and knowledge you need in this job. Relevant subjects include:
You'll usually need:
You could get into this job through a butcher intermediate apprenticeship. Once working, you could move onto the butcher advanced apprenticeship.
You'll usually need:
You can start as a trainee or assistant butcher and learn on the job. Knowledge of the meat trade or experience in food retailing may help you find a trainee job.
You'll need to:
Any experience you have working with the public, food or handling cash would be useful for this career.
You could join the Institute of Meat or the National Craft Butchers.
You'll find more advice about becoming a butcher from Tasty Careers.
With experience, you could work in larger and higher quality independent butchers' shops, retail chains and supermarkets, or set up your own shop.
You may progress to supervisory or management roles in a supermarket or chain of shops.
You could also work at the Food Standards Agency, checking quality and standards in abattoirs and meat plants.
You could move into catering, meat manufacturing and wholesaling.