Cleaner

Cleaners keep buildings hygienic and presentable - offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, shops, factories, trains and private homes. The work involves vacuuming, mopping, sanitising washrooms and kitchens, emptying bins, restocking supplies and dealing with spills or specialist cleaning tasks, usually to a set schedule agreed with the client or employer. It is not a graduate-entry role in the normal sense, but graduates do take it, often as flexible or interim work, and there is a genuine route from it into supervision, facilities management and contract management.

Approximate graduate salary

Usually paid hourly at or a little above the National Living Wage, so full-time equivalent pay typically works out around GBP 23,000-27,000, though this varies a lot by region, sector and shift. London weighting, unsocial-hours premiums, specialist cleaning and supervisory roles pay more, and many posts are genuinely part-time so actual take-home depends heavily on contracted hours. Some employers, particularly in the public sector and among organisations signed up to voluntary living wage commitments, pay above the statutory minimum.

What you'd actually do

Working through a cleaning schedule for an assigned area - vacuuming, mopping, dusting, wiping down desks and touchpoints, cleaning glass and emptying waste and recycling bins.
Cleaning and restocking washrooms and kitchens: toilets, sinks, mirrors, soap, paper towels, replacing bin liners.
Mixing and using chemical products correctly - dilution, colour-coded cloth systems (different colours for washrooms, kitchens and general areas to avoid spreading germs), and putting out wet floor signs.
Operating equipment such as commercial vacuums, floor scrubbers, buffers and sometimes carpet extraction or window-cleaning kit, plus reporting faults.
Checking stock of consumables and flagging when supplies need reordering; signing off cleaning checklists or logging completed tasks on a tablet or app in some contracts.
Reporting problems you notice in the building - leaks, broken fittings, blocked drains, damage, security issues like unlocked doors - to a supervisor or facilities team.
Responding to ad hoc requests: a spillage, a meeting room needing a quick turnaround, a washroom incident, or deep-cleaning after an event.

How graduates get in

Direct application is overwhelmingly the normal route. Vacancies are advertised by cleaning contractors, facilities management companies and individual employers (schools, hospitals, hotels, universities), and no degree is required.
Agency and temp work is very common and is often the quickest way in - useful if you want short-term or flexible hours while job hunting or studying.
In-house roles at universities, NHS trusts, councils and schools are usually advertised on the organisation's own jobs page and tend to have more structured terms than agency work.
Self-employment or working through a domestic cleaning platform for private households - flexible, but you handle your own tax, insurance and client relationships.
There are no graduate schemes for cleaning itself. However, facilities management graduate schemes exist at large FM contractors, and those lead into managing cleaning and other soft services rather than doing the cleaning - if management is your goal, that is the more direct graduate route.
Apprenticeships in cleaning and facilities services exist and can be a structured way in for school leavers; graduates are usually not eligible for funded apprenticeships at a level below their existing qualifications, though rules vary.

What employers ask for

No formal qualifications in most cases - no degree, and often no GCSEs specified. Your degree subject is irrelevant to getting hired.
Reliability and the ability to work the shift pattern offered. Many contracts are early morning (before offices open), evenings, or split shifts, and punctuality matters more than experience.
Right to work in the UK, and for many settings a DBS check (a criminal records check) - essential for schools, hospitals, care homes and lone working in private homes.
Reasonable physical fitness: standing for most of a shift, pushing equipment, bending, some lifting.
Basic English for following safety instructions, product labels and schedules. Requirements vary - some large contractors are used to multilingual teams and provide translated materials, others expect more.
Training is normally provided on the job, covering COSHH (rules for handling hazardous substances such as cleaning chemicals), manual handling and equipment use. Optional qualifications exist, such as British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) skills assessments, which employers may fund and which help if you want to progress.

Skills that matter

Working unsupervised to a standard

Most cleaners work alone or in small teams with a supervisor visiting occasionally, so the job depends on you completing the schedule properly without anyone watching.

Chemical and equipment safety knowledge

Mixing the wrong products, using the wrong dilution or leaving a floor unsigned can cause real injury, and getting this right is the main safety element of the job.

Speed with consistency

Contracts allocate set time per area, so you need to hit the standard within the time rather than doing one room perfectly and rushing the rest.

Discretion and respect for confidentiality

You work in offices, homes and clinical areas with documents, valuables and patients around, and trust is the reason clients keep a cleaner on site.

Attention to detail on the things that get inspected

Audits and client walk-rounds focus on specifics - washroom edges, high-touch surfaces, skirting, glass smears - so knowing what gets checked is what keeps a contract happy.

Calm handling of awkward situations

You will deal with unpleasant messes, staff who want you to work around them, and occasional rudeness, and staying professional is a large part of the role.

Where it leads

Cleaning operative, learning the site, the schedule and the equipment. Many people stay at this level by choice, particularly where hours fit around other commitments.
Specialist or mobile cleaner - window cleaning, carpet and floor care, deep cleans, or covering multiple sites. Usually better paid and often needs extra training or a driving licence.
Cleaning supervisor or team leader, responsible for a shift or a building: allocating work, checking quality, ordering supplies, covering absence and inducting new starters. This is the most common first step up.
Cleaning or soft services manager for a contract or site, dealing with the client, rotas, budgets, recruitment and audits. This is where a degree and general workplace skills start to help noticeably.
Facilities management roles - account manager, contract manager or FM within an organisation, covering cleaning alongside security, catering, waste and maintenance. From here, professional membership and qualifications through bodies such as the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) are the normal route on. Timescales vary enormously and depend far more on vacancies and employer size than on years served.

What people get wrong

“It is unskilled work that anyone can do straight away.”

There is a real body of knowledge - chemical dilution and COSHH rules, colour-coded equipment systems, infection control in clinical settings, floor types that will be ruined by the wrong product, and machine operation. Specialist cleaners in hospitals, laboratories or food production work to detailed documented procedures.

“It is a dead end with nowhere to go.”

Cleaning sits inside the facilities management industry, which is large and employs supervisors, contract managers and account directors. A significant number of FM managers started as operatives, and contractors often promote from within because site knowledge is valuable.

“The hours are standard daytime hours.”

Much commercial cleaning happens when buildings are empty - very early mornings, evenings, weekends - or in split shifts. This is why the work suits some people (students, second jobs, caring responsibilities) and is impractical for others.

“Cleaners just clean.”

On many contracts you are also the person who notices the leak, the broken lock or the safeguarding concern, and reporting those is a formal part of the job. In schools and care settings the role carries real responsibility for the safety of the environment.

Where this varies

The experience differs sharply by setting. Office cleaning on an outsourced contract tends to mean early or late shifts, tight time allocations and a supervisor covering several sites. NHS and care home cleaning (often called domestic services) involves formal infection-control procedures, working around patients and usually better job security and pension terms. School cleaning follows term time, with big holiday deep-clean periods. Hotel housekeeping is room-based and often paid or measured per room. Industrial and food-production cleaning can involve strict hygiene protocols, protective equipment and night shifts, and tends to pay more. Domestic cleaning for private clients is more autonomous but less secure, with no sick pay unless you arrange it yourself. Whether you are employed directly by the building's owner or by an outsourced contractor also affects pay, sick pay and pension significantly.

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.