Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½

Nutrition is a vital part of good health, and a degree in nutrition equips you with the skills and knowledge to help people make informed dietary choices

Job options

Jobs directly related to your degree include:

• Animal nutritionist
• Community education officer
• Food technologist
• Health improvement practitioner
• International aid/development worker
• Medical sales representative
• Naturopath
• Nutritional therapist
• Nutritionist

Jobs where your degree would be useful include:

• Catering manager
• Chef
• Dietitian
• Health service manager
• Herbalist
• Personal trainer
• Product/process development scientist

Remember that many employers accept applications from graduates with any degree subject, so don't restrict your thinking to the jobs listed here.

Work experience

Work experience will help you decide which area of nutrition you want to concentrate on, as well as giving you valuable experience and contacts. Some degrees include a work placement for a year, in a related sector such as food and drink, healthcare or sports.

If your degree doesn't offer a placement, take the initiative and look for opportunities yourself. For public health or community education, any community work, whether nutrition-related or not, will help develop your skills.

Hospitals and NHS Trusts may offer placements or work shadowing opportunities, and large organisations in the pharmaceutical, food manufacturing and sports sectors sometimes advertise internships over vacation periods. Employers will value any commercial experience, especially in food-related roles such as hospitality and catering.

Whatever your ambitions, it'll be useful for your career to get some experience of working in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, as you could end up working across all three. You may also want to take up student membership with  as this will help you to keep up to date with news in the sector and give you opportunities to attend relevant events and network with peers.

Search for placements and find out more about work experience and internships.

Typical employers

Your employer will depend on the area in which you wish to work and could include the following:

• contract caterers - within sectors like education, healthcare, and corporate services
• digital health companies
• government and non-government aid agencies (NGOs)
• international charities
• local authorities, NHS and government departments (such as the Department for Health & Social Care or the Department for International Development (DfID))
• multinational human or animal food manufacturers/retailers and supplement companies
• private nutrition consultancies
• sport and leisure companies, sports clubs or sports professional associations
• universities and research bodies
• voluntary organisations or not-for-profit community interest companies.

There are also opportunities to work as a self-employed nutritionist.

Find information on employers in healthcare, charity and voluntary work, public services and administration and other job sectors.

Skills for your CV

A nutrition degree develops your knowledge of the science of nutrients and their effects, as well as the social factors which influence nutrition. It covers food science, food production and physiology, as well as legislation, psychosocial issues and behaviour change strategies.

It also develops your skills in:

• scientific research
• understanding motivation behind behaviour
• collating, analysing and interpreting data
• understanding the business environment
• laboratory techniques
• communicating with a range of audiences.

Further study

You may choose to develop your interest or specialise further through postgraduate study, either immediately following your degree or after working for a few years. A Masters in your chosen area, for example, public health, global health, sport or animal nutrition and feed, will help you become an expert in your field.

If your undergraduate degree wasn't accredited by the , you could choose to take an AfN-accredited Masters degree, which leads to eligibility to apply for direct entry to the UK Voluntary Register of Nutritionists (UKVRN).

If you want to move to become a dietitian, you can study a two-year postgraduate course (either a Postgraduate Diploma or a Masters in dietetics) to meet the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration requirements.

For more information on further study and to find a course that interests you, see Masters degrees and search postgraduate courses in nutrition.

What do nutrition graduates do?

Popular occupations for nutrition graduates include other health professionals (22%), engineering professionals (6%), health associate professionals (6%), therapy professionals (5%) and welfare and housing associate professionals (4%).

Find out what other graduates are doing after finishing their degrees in

Graduate Outcomes survey data from HESA.