Dry Cleaner

Typical Salary

£14,000 To £17,500

Typical Hours

39 to 41 a week

weekends

How To Become a Dry Cleaner

You can get into this job through:

an apprenticeship
applying directly

College / University

Apprenticeship

You could start by doing a textile care operative intermediate apprenticeship.

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

Routes into this Career

Routes into this Career are not listed for this job.

You could apply directly for jobs. Employers will often be more interested in your personal qualities like reliability, timekeeping and customer care than qualifications.

Other Routes

Other Routes are not listed for this job.

Skills And Knowledge

You'll need:

the ability to use your initiative
to be thorough and pay attention to detail
the ability to work well with others
patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
sensitivity and understanding
to be flexible and open to change
the ability to work well with your hands
physical skills like movement, coordination, dexterity and grace
to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device

Day To Day Tasks

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

taking items from customers and giving them a collection ticket
checking items for damage and sorting them according to colour and fabric type
tagging the articles with bar codes or computer chips for easy identification
treating heavy stains before cleaning by 'spotting' with chemicals
weighing items and loading them into machines
setting machines to the right programme for the fabric and the amount of soiling
adding cleaning fluids, often percholorethyne (known as ‘perc’)
checking, pressing, folding or hanging the items after cleaning
returning cleaned items back to customers and handling payments
keeping work areas clean and tidy
filling out paperwork

Working Environment

You could work at a store, at a laundry or in a factory.

You may need to wear protective clothing.

Career Path & Progression

In a dry-cleaning plant you could progress to supervisor or manager.

In a dry cleaning shop, you could be promoted to store manager. If your shop is part of a chain you may be able to progress to running a larger shop, or to area or district management.

Volunteering Opportunities

Volunteering Opportunities are not listed for this job.

Tips & Information

Career tips

Retail sales experience could be useful.

Further information

You can find out more about working in laundry and dry cleaning services through the Guild of Cleaners and Launderers.

Restrictions & Requirements

Restrictions & Requirements are not listed for this job.