Employment Opportunities in Public Service

Thursday, 20 September 2012 07:52

Morwenna Petaia

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When I was younger I wanted to be an architect, I discovered that I was allergic to math so that didn’t work out.  

Then I thought that I would be a pilot and travel around the world.  I didn’t want to be a flight attendant because they had to stand up a lot.  I have an allergy to most physical activities including standing for long periods of time, cleaning and cleaning.  

The list of things that I wanted to do when I grew up got longer the more that I was made aware of the different career paths that were available.

One of my favourite things to do was to attend career expos.  While at High School I remember attending my first career expo.  While I was more excited at the time with collecting all the free pens, notepads, bags, chocolate, lollies and reading literature, when I got home and actually read through the different pamphlets my mind was opened to a world outside of school, church, food, boys and my friends.

I was suddenly aware that one day I would grow older and have to choose what I was going to do with my life.  It was a little daunting and at the same time exhilarating because there were so many options.

Having already attended the NUS and USP career days I was eager to see how the Samoa Public Service Career and Awareness Exhibition would measure up.

I was pleasantly surprised at how organized and interesting it turned out to be.

I did make the mistake of taking my 9 year old son who was on school holidays, because clearly this was not something that was marketed for his age group.

However, he was fascinated by the K9 unit display where we were able to see how the dogs were capable of picking out from a group a person who had illegal drugs planted on them.

He was also impressed by the posters from the Samoa Fire and Emergency Authority, the knots and model boats from the shipping and maritime departments and also the soap carving at the NUS stand.

So while he spent the majority of the time whining about how he was hungry and wanted to go home, I can honestly say that he has learnt a little about the Public Service in Samoa.

I was blown away by how many people were there.  Not just students but everyday people.  I find this important because not everyone is in a job that they are well suited for or really enjoy.  So being able to see what other options are still available out there allows them to open themselves to finding a career they are happier with.

Because by having a happier workforce we are allowing our country to being more productive.

I loved seeing the students there participating, asking questions and reading about the many opportunities that are available to them in the Public Service.  Samoa is unique in that the majority of the workforce is in the public sector, not the private one so learning about what each of the ministries do and trying to attract future generations into the various careers are also important.

I really look forward to seeing what the Public Service Exhibition has to offer next year.