Economic activity: primary, secondary and tertiary jobs
Geography · Key Stage 2 · The School
Three stages of work
PRIMARY jobs take materials directly from nature. Farming, fishing and mining are all primary. SECONDARY jobs turn those materials into something new. A factory making furniture is secondary. TERTIARY jobs provide a service rather than making a thing. A shop, a school and a hospital are all tertiary. Almost every job you can name fits into one of these three groups.
Sorting real jobs
A miner digging coal is primary. A worker in a steel factory is secondary. A teacher, a doctor and a shop assistant are all tertiary. Most people in the UK today work in tertiary jobs. That has not always been true.
One material, three stages
A tree is cut down. That is primary work. The wood is cut and shaped into a table in a factory. That is secondary work. The table is sold in a shop by a shop assistant. That is tertiary work. One material passed through all three stages. Tracing any product back reveals a similar chain.
A farmer grows cotton in a field. That is primary work, taking a raw material from the land. The raw cotton is sent to a factory. Workers spin it into thread and weave it into cloth. That is secondary work, making something new from the raw material. The finished cloth is cut and sewn into a shirt. The shirt is sold in a shop by a shop assistant. That final sale is tertiary work. One plant became a shirt through three distinct stages of work. Almost everything you own has a journey just like this one.