Wide Variety Of Jobs

Press, Volume C, Issue 29699, 18 December 1961, Page 12

Wide Variety Of Jobs

There are many employment agencies catering for casual or temporary workers. The trend has been bolstered recently by a secretarial bureau which has arranged work. for girls leaving Australasia. And the British Nursing Association, in conjunction with the Overseas Visitors* Club, now runs a scheme in which work is guaranteed for up to a year, for nurses. Both these organisations prove that Englishmen are keen to promote working holidays. Teaching is still the highest paid casual job. One secondary teacher with an M.A. was recently paid £3 17s a day as a supply teacher in London. He said that normally, income tax, national insurance (similar to social security), and superannuation are deducted from pay before it is received—and teachers can claim it afterwards if they work less than two years. The only disadvantage with teaching is that the softhearted are likely to be rudely shocked in slum schools. Teachers have been known to be attacked by razor-slinging youths. Secondary teachers are also likely to find themselves teaching primary classes and specialists frequently cope with every subject but their "forte.'* Teachers, however, are in great demand and pay, varying according to qualifications and experience, is generally between 37s fid and 53s fid a day for men, lower for women. Unqualified men teachers are paid 37s fid a day, women a little lower. It is wise to send qualifications to the Ministry of Education, Curzon Street House, Curzon street, London, W.l, from New Zealand, so making sure that you are officially recognised on arrival. Radiographers must register with the Society of Radiographers (do it beforehand), printers should register provisionally with a union before their arrival, and nurses should send proof of their qualifications to the British Nursing Association or other authority. The London office is: BN A House, 38 Molyneaux street, London, W.l.

The catering trade Is a fruitful source ot labour for men. Fur unlike here, few tackle London s tough dockside for casual work. A entering firm responsible for large-scale catering at national exhibitions or Battersea Pleasure Gardens, will employ men as waiters or porters for as long as six months. Pay with gratuities amoants to £2 3s a day. Living-in barmen earn keep plus £8 or more, barmaids from £5. Coffee bars and restaurants absorb a constant labour supply. Pay is a minimum, plus tips for waiters and waitresses. An ordinary coffee bar does not furnish a sky-rocket wage, but certain choice eatinghouses provide 5s tips. One New Zealand girl saved nearly £2O a week while a waitress in a coffee bar-cum-restaurant near Oxford street Some experience is required for silver service work, but otherwise the only skills required are swiftness of hand and accuracy of memory. At sale time, large stores offer casual work with a £7

minimum. And holiday camps provide extensive casual work for a season (May to September), as do fruit and hop picking. Holiday camp pay is £5 a week plus keep and use of camp facilities. Drivers for hire car firms are paid £8 to £9 a week, plus expenses, and driver-car-washers at garages receive 3s to 4s an hour. Most driving jobs are available for not less than six months. (Don’t forget to take your licence.) Older women often take on housekeping jobs which provide a roof over their heads, regular meals and heating. Pay varies with each employer. The writer received £3 as a type of domestic “char” in a country educational institution and £5 as mother’s help and substitute for regular cleaners, in a private home. Such work offers an ideal base for viewing the foxhunting, cider-drinking, ser-vant-employing way of life of the country English, and also, of viewing ancient England at first hand. Live-in jobs, however, have a disadvantage—you are on the spot Although most employers provide a day off a week,

employees are usually at their beck and call Living in another person's home is difficult anywhere—particularly in another country. After a while, the potential tourist longs for other sights and sounds, or merely the garrulous companionship of antipodeans. Domestic help in boarding houses and hotels receive from 3s an hour, plus free meals. Building and road labourers average from 4s to 5s an hour, with excellent overtime rates (get in touch with the local Government Labour Exchange). Secretarial or typing jobs are always available. Even unqualified typists prove better equipped than many English office workers. Work is often combined with receptionist or switchboard duties and pay for typists ranges from £9 a week, shorthand typists from £lO a week. The customary thing to do is to approach an agency. Spells at work places vary from a few days to several months. You do not usually have to pay the agency to employ you.

The Professions Pay is good for medical, dental and veterinary surgeons: £l5 to £2O a week or lower salaries plus reduced rates for board and lodging. Dentists working under the National Health Service stack up £25 to £3O weekly, plus travelling expenses and other allowances. Architects find work fairly easy to obtain, the starting pay being between £ll to £l7 a week; and land quantity surveyors receive £9 15s a week, but quantity surveyors are better off for permanent work. Pay for chartered accountants, who are much in demand, rises from £l7 a week. Temporary jobs are available between March and September, otherwise be prepared to stay for six months or a year. Pay is reasonable for commercial artists: £l3 to £l5; engineering skilled trades: £l2 with overtime up to £25. Engineers and draughtsmen, preferably permanent, can fetch anything from £5OO to £2500 yearly. Farm labouring pays more than £8 a week, plus overtime.