You can save trees by applying for your public sector career online, says Richard Tyrie of jobsgopublic.

Local authorities are facing a recruitment crisis, and that's good news for young people looking for a socially responsible career.

In less than 10 years, nearly one third of the current public sector workforce will retire. Unless more young people are attracted to work in everything from social work to policing, mental health, to education, management, planning and environment, the public sector will face a serious recruitment crisis.

Big salaries for bright young things

That means job opportunities are better than ever for young people interested in the public sector. Local authorities are spending thousands recruiting the brightest young things, and allocating big salaries to keep them.

The way local authorities recruit has changed hugely over recent years, and that's good news for the environment, great for taxpayers and excellent for a generation of young job seekers more comfortable with computers than scrawling out job applications in long hand.

Old recruitment methods

Applying for local authority jobs in the past was never the most environmentally sound affair. For each job, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of application packs would be sent out, each bulging with reams of paper. Many would simply be thrown away as job seekers found the job wasn't what they were looking for. The environmental cost in felled trees was phenomenal. Even using recycled paper, the economic cost to local authorities, at around £6 per application pack, was huge.

These days, most local authorities, charities and other organisations recruit exclusively or mainly over the internet. Local authorities have linked up with e-recruitment companies to offer a totally paper-free application process.

New paper-free applications save millions

More than £10 million a year of taxpayer's money has been saved as local authorities move to electronic recruitment. That's cash that can be diverted to front line services, paying for more teachers or better libraries, improving care for older people, planting more trees or building more cycle lanes.

E-recruitment is great for the applicant too. No more spending hours pouring over newspaper recruitment pages, days waiting for thick information packs to arrive, and yet more time filling in complicated 20-page application forms.

You can now search for jobs that exactly meet your desires, apply and submit in a matter of minutes at the click of a mouse. You can even enter in your aspirations and skills, and let websites email you whenever a suitable job comes up.

Diverse careers

Imagine helping children in care and giving them a chance to build a new life. Or protecting the environment from polluting companies. Or ensuring that the public is kept safe from rogue traders. Or helping people who are being intimidated by abusive neighbours. Imagine making a real difference to peoples lives.

It's all just a simple, and environmentally friendly, e-application away.


Jobsgopublic
www.jobsgopublic.com