A soft iron core will concentrate the lines of magnetic field inside the coil. This turns the coil into an electromagnet. Soft' iron loses its magnetism very quickly when the current stops. Normal iron keeps its magnetism when the current stops. The soft iron core is useful when you want an electromagnet to switch off rapidly.
Some cranes use electromagnets to pick up cars.
They can let go of the car by turning off the current. Electric bells use electromagnets - once the magnet has pulled the striker towards the bell, the current stops to let the striker move back away from the bell again. Some science syllabuses demand that you know how a relay and an electric bell work in detail. You can check with your teachers how much you need to know. If a magnet is near to a wire which has a current going through it, the magnetic field from the wire and the field from the magnets will interact and the wire will move.