The Job

No two days are the same. If you want a job where there’s a lot of variety and lot going on, then this could be a good choice. In fact, you’ll have to look hard to find a more diverse career.

Some trading standards professionals (TSPs) work out of the office on the frontline, others work by telephone, letter and email giving advice about our consumer rights. But every one strives to protect people from counterfeit and unsafe products, and from fraud and criminal practice.

Have you been conned by cowboy builders and double glazing salesmen with offers you can’t refuse? Was the football shirt you bought a bona fide product from your local club or was it a fake? Plenty of people have been taken in like this. The question is, what can you do about it?

Trading standards professionals have the answers. It’s their job to get to grips with all these civil and criminal issues. Of course, they’re not always on the attack. There are countless routine tasks involving friendly liaison with companies to advise them on trading practice and legislative requirements. Sometimes it’s not only consumers that are taken in; companies may also be the victims of fraud.

Getting to the truth and putting things right isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s necessary to mount undercover operations to root out breaches of consumer law. In some ways, TSPs are as powerful as the police and, like them, may be called on to give evidence in court.

So there’s a tremendous variety in trading standards’ work. Boiled down, there are three broad aims. Trading standards professionals ensure:

• that consumers are informed and confident
• that business is informed and successful
• that trading always takes place in a fair and safe environment.

For further information click on:

click here for consumers
click here for business
click here for trading

The challenges are huge and the satisfaction from a job well done, enormous.