This week on the Guardian website, we’ve found 515 jobs in local government on offer. You can see on the right the pay grades they offer, with only 2 over £100,000. It shows, week after week for you to see, that the pay and perks in the public sector have outstripped those in the private sector.
Our non-job of the week comes from Tower Hamlets:
“Personal Best Adviser
£30,843 - £32,976
Tower Hamlets is a distinctive, unique London Borough that is home to a diverse, vibrant, multicultural community. As part of an exciting regeneration programme, we aim to improve the quality of life for all who live and work in the area. It's also an ideal opportunity to further your career.
Tower Hamlets is a Host Borough for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the council's 2012 Unit is responsible for ensuring that the borough's communities are in the best position to take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that this offers. The 2012 Unit is currently seeking to recruit two new roles that will play an important part in securing the best possible Olympic legacy for Tower Hamlets.
Personal Best is a training and volunteer programme that uses the excitement surrounding the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a way of encouraging individuals to learn new skills, engage in their communities, raise their aspirations and increase their chances of getting a job.
The 2012 games will require 70,000 games time volunteers, and the Personal Best Programme aims to prepare people for this challenge by offering relevant training and support. On completion of the training delegates are guaranteed an interview to become a London 2012 volunteer.
The Personal Best Adviser will be responsible for coordinating the borough's wrap-around activity, promoting Personal Best to hard to reach target audiences and working closely with employers, training providers, the community, local agencies and partners to broker volunteering, employment and training opportunities. Prior experience of working in a one-on-one environment with clients from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds is vital, as is a positive 'can do' attitude to motivate and support participants throughout their programme experience.”
Isn’t it a bit premature to be advertising for people to train Olympic volunteers – the stadium hasn’t even been built yet! But the important thing to note is that councils now have to pick up some of the slack in funding positions for the Olympics. It just shows how mismanaged the Olympic plans have been and how – as always – local government is there to spend, spend, spend.