‘Superwoman’ 2 Going out to work

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 16

‘Superwoman’ 2 Going out to work

If you have decided to try working outside the home, Shirley Conran’s “Superwoman in Action” will be a handy reference. The British writer’s latest book, revised for New Zealanders, is a fund of sensible advice. Today, we publish the first of four extracts from the book.

What you need to fine out about a new job is the minimum education re quirements (which you can often ignore), when tc apply for training, duration, and cost of training and whether you can ge anyone else to pay (a; your fees, (b) your living costs.

Go for Hie most intensive, shortest course;, it’s often • simply not necessary to take a long course which goes on for years. At this point you decide whether or not you want to train. Some of the jobs described below don’t even need exam passes, and some of them have special, short-cut training schemes for older people, where nobody asks for exam marks because they’re much more interested in people with experience in life. Public . Service apart, don’t worry about lack of qualifications unless you want to be a brain surgeon. Quite often people ask for them only because everybody else does. What they mainly go on is the personal interview. In fact, a careers guidance officer advised me to ignore examination minimums, even if specified in advertisements. “You don’t have to join the system, you can beat it,” she said.

■Some of the following trainingsingly long. I can’t essingly long. (I can’t think beyond a year, my self). But there are often short-cuts and it’s always worth checking on any special arrangements for

late entrants rather than school leavers.

Training can involve training before a job (fulltime), on the job or parttime courses either in the evening or on a day release basi. You will want to know how long the trining period is going to be, whether you will be able to work and train at the same time, and qhether you have qualifications that can be taken into account. I have listed some suitable and interesting jobs that you may not know about and also jobs that mature women often want to do without realising the difficulties, qualifications, and/or time which may be involved. When I list “Qualifications” they are the qualifications needed to train you for the job, not qualifications to do the job. The best source of information about what a particular type of job involves is usually the union or professional association. Find out all details of courses from the technical institute or polytechnic or university you wish to attend (and whether they’re likely to accept you), and then pur-

sue the matter with the help of your local vocational guidance office. It is polite and wise, if you are writing for free information, to enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope which is large enough to take (hopefully) lots of brochures. There always seems to be opportunities in the following fields which are traditionally women’s jobs; If you are a nurse or a secretary, the Englishspeaking world is still your oyster. There are good opportunities for women in the service industries (shops, hospitals, local government work) and in education, catering, clerical and office work. There are also openings for systems analysts, computer. programmers, office machine operators (Xeroxing, etc.), waiters, and waitresses. The traditionally “male” job areas are usually short of accountants, electrical and electronic engineers, postmen (in fact, most posties seem to be women these days), draughtsmen, tool makers, fitters and turners, bus drivers, bank clerks, and insurance.