Highest paying jobs that you don’t need a qualification for – and you could get up to £90,000 a year

TOP jobs paying high wages don’t always require a formal education.

Job site Adzuna has listed 20 roles that don’t require a university education and pay more than the average UK annual salary of £33,000.

Some of them even pay a whopping £90,000 a year, and for many positions “knowledge and skills are far more important than formal education”, according to Andrew Hunter, the co-founder of Adzuna.

The job with the highest annual salary which pays workers up to £90,000 a year is the role of casino gaming manager.

Andrew said: “A university degree is no longer the only ticket to a high paying career, as more industries look to expand their talent pools to a more diverse range of applicants and offer on the job training.

“The IT sector is a good example of this, boasting many high paying roles like scrum master, ethical hacker, and software developer open to jobseekers without a computer science qualification.”

Scrum masters, for example, are earning upwards of £62,000 a year.

A scrum master acts as a project manager for IT and tech development.

There are courses you can take to train in being a scum master, but there’s no strict path into the job.

Commercial pilots, ethical hackers and air traffic controllers are also among the jobs paying around £60,000 a year.

And while a degree isn’t needed for most of these jobs, there may be other requirements.

For example, you don’t need to study at university to become a commercial pilot, but you’ll usually need five GCSEs including English, Science, and Maths.

With the cost of a university education adding up to £57,000 on average, it could pay to pursue one of the high-paying careers that avoid taking on student loan debts and studying costs.

The average wage in the UK in the last tax year was around £33,000.

The national living wage in the UK, which is the minimum for those aged over 23, is rising to £10.42 next month.

That works out as an annual salary of just over £19,600 for full-time workers.

Those in the following roles can also expect to earn salaries between £50,000 and £60,000 a year:

• Software developer
• Train driver
• Construction manager
• Oil Rig operative
• Security manager
• Games developer
• Project manager

Eight other jobs pay workers without formal education salaries between £43,000 and £46,000 a year:

• Buying manager
• Translator
• Accountant
• Private chef
• Army officer
• Digital marketing manager
• Landscape designer
• ChatGPT prompt engineer

A recruitment expert has revealed the best CV and shared top tips for writing yours.

We’ve listed nine easy ways to make money online from home in 2023.

Plus, 20 side hustles – from being paid to watch movies to recycling old till receipts – could see you make hundreds of pounds each year.

But remember, if you do go down the self-employment route you’ll need to tell HMRC about your earnings.

You can make up to £1,000 a year from selling items online or odd jobs like dog-sitting, without having to tell HMRC or pay tax on your earnings.

Anything above this must be declared and you’ll need to fill out a self-assessment tax return.

The tax you pay depends on your other income.

MoneySavingExpert’s income tax calculator can help you do the math.