You could prepare for this job by doing a college course to get some of the skills you'll need.

Courses include:

• introduction to employment in the hospitality industry
• food and beverage service
• professional food and beverage service

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for these courses vary.

You could apply to do a Food and Beverage Team Member Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

• some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship

You could volunteer in a cafe run by a local community organisation or a charity like the Royal Voluntary Service to develop your skills.

You can also find more volunteering opportunities through Do IT.

You can apply for waiter jobs without experience as you'll get training on the job.

You might have an advantage if you've worked in customer service.

Further information

You can find out more about working in hospitality from Careerscope.

You'll need:

• customer service skills
• the ability to work well with others
• the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• excellent verbal communication skills
• a desire to help people
• active listening skills
• a good memory
• to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device

As a waiter you could:

• greet customers, give out menus and take food and drink orders
• answer questions about the menu and give advice on ingredients
• serve food and drinks, handle bill payments and clean tables
• deal with any complaints and make sure customers are happy

You could work at a restaurant, in a coffee shop or in a food outlet.

Your working environment may be hot, humid and noisy.

You may need to wear a uniform.