Not to mention a clutch of specialist jobs – be they in marketing, finance or HR perhaps – that will be represented among the support staff.Rowley says: “My advice is to forget the notion that the public sector isn’t for you because you don’t happen to want to be a teacher or a policeman. In truth, she says, one of the main advantages of a public sector job is the sheer variety of careers on offer. While more experienced job-seekers understand that recruitment terms such as ‘must have analytical skills’ are often a tacit invitation to graduates, inexperienced 21-year-olds doing a trawl of the key public sector sites may not realise that these are appropriate jobs for them.”Rowley also believes that there is a misconception among some graduates that there are just three key jobs in the public sector: teacher, doctor or police officer. “Public sector jobs are desperately short of young talent, but in many cases, are simply not marketing themselves properly. Some of them deliberately don’t use the word ‘graduate’ in their recruitment material or on their websites because they are frightened of discriminating against non-graduates, and it is very much up to the job-seeker to interpret just who it is they are looking for. For graduates who want their career to make an impact on people’s lives, the public sector may be the right choice.With just 80,000 or so recognised graduate placements on offer each year (fewer than half the available pool of graduates) the majority of young people searching out graduate-level openings after university are forced to look beyond the official schemes towards one of the hundreds of professional training schemes on offer. Which is where the public sector comes in, according to Jayne Rowley, publishing director of Graduate Prospects.”According to the latest figures, just 6 per cent of public sector employees are under 25 years of age, compared with a national average of 14 per cent,” Rowley says.

There is one employment sector where salaries and jobs are on the increase, where ethnic minorities are often positively welcomed and where gender and sexual orientation does not matter nearly as much as talent and drive. It’s a sector which has had to pull itself up by the bootstraps to counter a highly negative image, but one which on the whole values lives more than profits Surprisingly though, it is still crying out for graduates. Different parts of the public sector tend to have their own particular entry routes and these do not always make it easy for graduates. There certainly are concerns that while the Civil Service fast stream, the NHS Management scheme and the NDGP for Local Government offer really good pathways, other parts of government are not as good in promoting themselves.

Local government offers 500 different careers but isn’t very good at shouting about them.So it looks like there are still plenty of opportunities in the public sector for graduates. Most public sector staff have become accustomed to radical reform as programmes such as “Agenda for Change” – currently sweeping through the health service – continue to make their mark.A growing number of graduates appear to care as much about doing something “worthwhile” as about climbing to the top of the earnings tree. Surprisingly though, it is still crying out for graduates.
Once the butt of a thousand jokes about paperclip-counting, the public sector is going through a rapid period of change. From the evidence of recent events it looks like people are taking the “Giving” part seriously and not just in terms of money.Fiona Christie is a Careers Consultant, Business, Careers and Community Division, The University of ManchesterThe Kaleidoscope Careers and Information Fair for the voluntary and public sectors takes place on Wednesday, 23 February at Manchester Academy, Oxford Road, Manchester, 11am-4pm. For more details, visit: . Peter Hawkins, a careers guru and writer of the “Art of Building Windmills”, argues for the ideal for a balanced life being WPLG – Working, Playing, Learning, Giving.