The Future for Public Relations

With well over 1500 PR consultancies registered within the UK and with the number of people in the industry expected to double over the next decade, the future of PR is assured and the demand for PR-trained individuals will continue to grow. The development of digital technology and the World Wide Web are altering working habits and are changing the way PR programmes are conducted. Growth areas of PR include: health care, technology, consumer PR, investor relations and political affairs. The London School of Public Relations can offer those seeking to enter PR or those currently within their first year of this increasingly sophisticated business discipline, a competitive edge over the thousands of other graduates trying to enter communications careers every year.

Social Work

Local authorities employ social workers in field work, residential and day care, in health service posts and in community social work. All the jobs involve working with people with difficulties. The essential qualification for a career in social work is the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work. (Social Work)

Surveying and Valuation

Local authorities buy, sell and manage a great deal of land, property and buildings and employ a wide variety of professional surveying staff—valuers, building surveyors, quantity surveyors. Again, current restrictions on local government expenditure mean limited recruitment. (Surveying)

Words to remember:

valuers

restrictions

Trading Standards and Consumer Protection

The responsibility for trading standards is vested in the County and Metropolitan District Councils and in the London Boroughs. Departments may be called either Departments of Trading Standards or of Consumer Protection. Either way they grew out of the old Weights and Measures Departments. Inspectors still check that the weights and measures used in the manufacture and sales of goods are accurate but the primacy of this activity has given way before a great increase in responsibilities which have resulted from further legislation designed not only to protect consumers but to help them spend their money wisely. Departments now enforce legislation under the Weights and Measures Act, and Food and Drugs Act, the Trades Description Act, the Consumer Credit Act.

Trading Standards Officers spend 70% of the working day out of the office. After the first hour or so dealing with correspondence, they are off on their round. Some calls might involve checking weighing machines in retail shops, or pumps at petrol stations. Whilst there they might check to see that the petrol prices conformed to recent legislation about the need to quote the official and reduced price. After that there might be a series of complaints about inaccurate labelling of goods or misleading advertising to investigate. The job involves not merely detecting an offence but advising a trader whose practice may be a result of ignorance rather than intent to deceive. Only in the last resort might Inspectors recommend prosecution. If this happens they will have to appear in court as a witness, having briefed solicitors on the authority's case. At the end of the day they will be back in the office to write up reports on their visits.

Several authorities have set up Consumer Advice Centres which offer both pre-shopping advice - what to buy, how to assess alternatives - and help if things are faulty. However, as the Government has withdrawn grant aid for these, quite a number have been closed down. The authorities also run educational programmes for schools and women's groups.

Officers working in Trading Standards must be able to get on well with a wide range of people, while at the same time being prepared to see themselves as people enforcing the law; they may have to face unpopularity.

This is a relatively new field for graduates but the complexities and extent of new legislation have meant that local authorities are looking for a higher calibre of recruit than in the past. Entry requirements are a minimum of two 'A' levels and five 'O' levels, which must include English, mathematics and physics. There are some 80 training places available annually and of these at least three quarters are filled by graduates. A number of authorities now recruit graduates only. A degree in engineering, science or law is often specified but other degrees are considered. Training for the Diploma in Trading Standards is by block release at one of three centres (London, Manchester and Weston-super-Mare), coupled with directed practical in-service experience. It takes about three years to qualify.

Entrants are usually paid on a Local Government trainee scale, and the salary would depend upon age and qualifications; most authorities provide an advancement following successful completion of the Part I examination. On qualification, the most representative grade is 5/6/SO1.

Currently, the number of vacancies exceeds the numbers being trained, although the situation is complicated by the fact that, due to financial constraints, some posts are being left unfilled. There are, nationally, more qualified staff employed in grades above that of the initially appointed inspector, and in fact the number at divisional inspector level or above represents over one third of the service, so promotion prospects are very good. A Chief Officer post would attract a salary of over £21,000.