PUBLIC SERVICE CAREERS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30555, 25 September 1964, Page 12

PUBLIC SERVICE CAREERS

In New Zealand the work that the central Government undertakes is authorised in Acts of Parliament passed by the House of Representatives. Ministers of the Crown are responsible to Parliament for the administration of this legislation, but naturally they cannot do all the work themselves. They therefore have Government departments to help them and to advise them how Parliament’s decisions can best be put into effect.

In 1959, for instance, Parliament decided that, in the interests of the safety of the general public and of people engaged in construction work, strict rules-should be laid down to ensure that construction projects were safe. It therefore passed the Construction Act. The Minister of Labour was made responsible for administering the Act, and special safety inspectors were appointed to the Labour Department.

In this way an Act of Parliament has become the responsibility of a Minister of the Crown, and a department has been authorised to see that Parliament’s decision is carried out.

There are 37 departments in the general Public Service. In addition there are the Post Office and the Railways, which have their own administrations, the Legislative Department, which is administered by Parliament itself, and various Government agencies such as the Broadcasting Corporation and the National Airways Corporation, which are not Departments of State, even though they are set up by Acts of Parliament and are subject to a certain amount of supervision by the Government.

One of the 37 departments is the Office of the State Services Commission, which is responsible to Parliament for recruiting staff for the Public Service and ensuring that departments are efficient. It also controls the appointment and promotion of officers.

The departments of the Public Service can be grouped according to their functions. One group is concerned with the development and servicing of our primary and secondary industries. An example is the Agriculture Department, which, is concerned with the improvement of the quality and quantity of our primary production, the professional and technical advice to the farming community, and research into animal and plant diseases. The department offers specialist careers in agricultural, veterinary, horticultural, and dairy science. Other departments in this group are the Forestry, Lands and Survey, Industries and Commerce, Mines, Labour, and Scientific and Industrial Research departments.

Departments concerned with social welfare include Education, Social Security, Health, Justice, and Maori Affairs departments.

There are a number of trading departments, which provide a variety of services for the public. Government departments are responsible for the administration of our

public transport, and another group is concerned with our defence and our external relations. Finally there are the primarily administrative departments. They are mainly concerned with finance and public revenue. All departments have excellent prospects for careers in administration, shorthand typing and typing, machining, and many related fields such as library arid statistical and

research work. Separate leaflets on all the departments and virtually all the specialist careers are available from careers advisers, State Services Commission representatives, or the individual departments concerned. Ministry Of Works The biggest department of the Public Service is the Ministry of Works. This department is associated in some way with almost every phase of national development and its activities extend from the tropics to the Antarctic. The planning and supervision of a programme worth about £li million a week requires a .big staff of professional, technical, and administrative officers, plus the services of hundreds of contractors and thousands of workmen. There are vacancies every year for suitable young men and women on the staff of the Ministry of Works. A boy or girl cadet joining the department’s administrative division straight from school will start at a salary of £405 a year if they have had three years’ secondary schooling, or £525 a year if they have University Entrance. There are seven divisions in the Ministry of Works. They are administrative, architectural, civil engineering, housing, mechanical and electrical engineering, power engineering, and roading. Field Assistants These are employed in the civil engineering division of the Ministry of Works. There are vacancies at present for field assistants at Benmore and Aviemore. These appointments pro-

vide excellent careers and opportunities for young men who are attracted to field work in civil engineering but who for various reasons do not commence as engineering cadets or do not wish to become draughtsmen. After a five-year period of wide general training, field assistants may choose to advance in one of several different branches , of civil engineering work. Selection of career is made by each field assistant after he has completed the requirements for experience in each' of the three main types of work as follows: Investigations and Surveys.—Those electing to follow this type of career must also decide whether they prefer to become “general practitioners” or “specialists.” .

In the former category they receive further training on surveys and construction works of varying types with a view to promotion to engineer’s assistant, senior engineer’s assistant, senior engiengineering officer. As experience and seniority is attained the work tends to change from purely engineering surveys to include Increasing degrees of job management and construction supervision. The “specialist” category involves a career in hydrological surveys and investigations with a view to promotion to hydrological assistant, senior hydrological assistant and hydrologist. Hydrological survey work covers the use of special in-

MOTOR MECHANICS Is only one of the trades a boy can learn as an apprentice. Manual dexterity will always be necessary but today education will improve a boy’s chances in even the simplest trade.

struments as well as the more normal types used for general surveys and considerable travelling is involved. Special field work is done in connexion with river surveys, stream flows, flood measurements, water level recorder installations, etc., and investigation surveys for soil conservation, river control and hydro-electric power schemes. Quality Control of Construction Materials.—Those who choose this type of career are posted to a testing laboratory for further training and can be promoted to technician and technical officer.

The training covers field and laboratory sampling and testing of construction materials and their quality control, Typical materials include concrete aggregates, cement, concrete, soils, road-building metals and bituminous surfacing, radiographic welding tests, foundation tests for major buildings and bridges, and the construction and use of hydraulic models. Supervision of construction and workmanship as a career requires further experience in the close supervision of field construction jobs, including plant, operators and workmen and the allied office duties, also the control of large construction works carried out for the department by private contractors.