Sunday Business Post | Irish Business News

Breaking News Business Ireland World Sport Weather

Navigation (Home)News News Features The Market Technology Media & Marketing Comment & Analysis Computers In Business Profile Property Motoring Agenda Letters

People In Business Done Deal Budget Forum Events / Conferences Company Reports Tools Crossword Search the archives Newsletter IMODE RSS

Text-Only

Going to College: Opportunities remain in public administration
Sunday, January 18, 2009 By Dick O’Brien
With threats of job losses and pay cuts in the public service dominating the headlines in recent weeks, now may not be the obvious time to consider a career in public administration. However, according to Mary Sweeney, head of careers at the University of Limerick, students completing their CAO applications this year should not be overly influenced by recent headlines. ‘‘The important thing to remember is that these students will be graduating around five years from now. The economy is going to be very different at that stage and people should not react to the current situation,” she said.

‘‘The same thing happened after the dotcom crash. Students suddenly abandoned IT courses and we were left with a shortage of graduates.”

Sweeney said that, over the long term, demand for qualified administrators was never going to disappear. What may not be obvious to many Leaving Cert students is that a qualification in public administration or a similar field does not confine you to a career in the public sector.

Graduates end up working in a wide variety of fields, including financial services, human resources, marketing, insurance and even teaching, she said.

‘‘It can be a mistake to give too much priority to a degree title. You are really acquiring a set of skills that can be applied in a range of different areas,” she said. A common pitfall for students was to think too much about their employment prospects from a particular degree, and not enough about whether the course will interest them and help develop their talents. The risk of the former approach is that students may eventually find themselves in a job that doesn’t suit them or, worse, they won’t have sufficient motivation to complete the course.

Despite the downturn, graduates in this field have still done quite well, according to figures on the last batch of graduates from UL’s degree in Public Administration. Sweeney said that, by last summer, 74 per cent were already in employment, 17 per cent had gone on for further study, while 7 per cent had taken time off, for travel and suchlike. Only one person reported that they were looking for a job.

Click here for Sunday Business Post stories before this date