REVERTING TO TYPE

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33454, 8 February 1974, Page 4

REVERTING TO TYPE

When a married woman decides to return to work part-time in an office she may not have used a typewriter for years. She is out of practice, nervous about doing a test at an employment bureau and her confidence fails her. Drake Overload, which has recently opened an office in the C.M.L. building, Cathedral Square, recognises this problem, and makes typewriters available to women who wish to “brush up their skills,” before looking for an office job. Mr Alex Anderson, the I manager, who has been transferred from Sydney to open branches in New Zealand, said yesterday that he had a number of machines in the office for free use for women who had “gone rusty.” ' “The typewriters may be ■ used for up to an hour at a ■ time—or longer if they are l not needed for testing,” he isaid. I This service enables a woman to get back her accur'acy and speed before she is tested for a job at the bureau and sent to an employer for an interview. Mr Anderson emphasises that his firm’s standards are high. “That is why we have had ! a very good employer response, even though we only opened in Christchurch on February 4,” he said. “If temporary office jobs are available, we can fill them.” The bureau deals mainly with temporary and part- ; time clerical and office staff din Christchurch. It tests for [typing, shorthand-typing, die-

taphone typing and legal secretarial work. “Eventually, we shall open other divisions to provide opportunities for executive staff and also industrial staff, such as warehousemen, packers, drivers and some tradesmen,” he said. Drake Overload is the temporary office help division of Drake International, a group of companies in the personnel systems business in seven countries. Research had shown that

in big cities there was a large pool of people, mostly women, who had a wide range of skills and considerable experience, Mr Anderson said. But they could not hold permanent positions if they were housewives and mothers with heavy home commitments. Pensioners who had to watch that their earnings did not exceed allowable incomes, and single girls between jobs or travelling around, also made suitable members of the temporary work force. And employers now appreciated that wider use of such skills and experience available parttime could be economic for business. Mr Anderson said that one facet of temporary work which many women appreciated was that, if they could not complete an assignment, they could ring his bureau and a replacement could be found immediately without [inconvenience to his client.