Despite the hiving off of many research and development organisations such as
the National Physical Laboratory and the Road Transport Research Laboratory into
the private sector, the Civil Service remains an important employer of
scientists and engineers in Britain. The Ministry of Defence alone employs 17
000 scientists and engineers and recruits in two different areas. Its Defence
Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), which includes its largest establishments
at Farnborough and Malvern, recruits around 300 engineering graduates each year.
DERA says it wants 鈥渁nalytically minded, innovative graduates to work in many
different roles, from scientific research and practical technological
application to operational analysis鈥�.
The Defence Engineering and Science Group (DESG), which represents the
smaller MOD laboratories, is recruiting about 70 new graduate technologists in
1999 from a wider range of disciplines including computer science and
communications engineering, physics, mathematics and psychology. And usually
there are vacancies for electronic, electrical and mechanical engineers,
aeronautical engineers and naval architects.
鈥淭echnologists who apply to us after working for several years in industry,
are often surprised when they come to interview with the MOD, by the breadth of
experience our employees gain in the wider business aspects of project
management,鈥� says Lucy Harris, senior recruitment manager at DESG. 鈥淭he idea
that just because we are big means we are also slow moving, is completely false.
Those who join us soon find that their work has a major impact,鈥� says
Harris.
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DESG鈥檚 graduate scientist training programme aims to help scientists 鈥渢o
develop their expert scientific knowledge to fulfil the needs of their specific
post鈥�. Engineers are expected to join their relevant professional body and work
towards Chartered Engineer status. To this end, they may be seconded to
placements in project management, production, research, design and development
or test and commissioning with the MOD鈥檚 suppliers. It takes two years of
training to become a procurement manager.
The Meteorological Office, Bracknell, provides services to industry and local
government, the Ministry of Defence, aviation and shipping. It also undertakes
research on meteorology and geophysics. The Met Office recruits graduates and
those with Higher National Diplomas in maths, physics or meteorology, computing
or electronics. Sarah Moss, a physicist at the Met Office, spent the first five
years of her career studying glaciation processes in clouds, which involved a
considerable number of flights in a Hercules aircraft taking measurements and
collecting data. Now she has moved to investigating the visibility obtained with
a range of military aids in different weather conditions.
The Radiocommunications Agency, London, is responsible for allocating and
assigning radio frequencies to Britain鈥檚 suppliers of telecommunications
services. The agency is involved in international negotiations on the use of
frequencies in the radio spectrum. Every year the agency recruits a few
engineers in electronics and communications engineering from degree courses
which are accredited by the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
The job of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Cheltenham, is
to protect the security of official and military communications and computer
security. Its staff 鈥渟tudy communications in order to supply defence and foreign
intelligence鈥�. It is looking for electronics and communications engineers and
people with qualifications in computing and information technology. Its
laboratory at Hanslope Park, near Newport Pagnell, undertakes research, design,
development and production of communications hardware and software.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott鈥檚 Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions includes the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), an
agency of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which has laboratories in
Sheffield and Buxton. The analytical laboratory at Sheffield investigates such
matters as air samples taken from the workplace and uses computer models to
research the dispersion of gases which may cause fires or explosions. It also
investigates the biomechanics of lifting, such as problems which arise in taking
patients out of ambulances. The HSL at Buxton has its own tunnel and a section
of railway track. Its work is much concerned with railway safety, but it also
focuses on petroleum and gas explosions. Both of the HSE鈥檚 laboratories recruit
scientists engineers and mathematicians as and when required. A growing area is
the use of regulatory scientists, including toxicologists and chemists, to
interpret data which the HSE receives from manufacturers.
When things go awry with our food and there鈥檚 a national outcry, the Ministry
of Agriculture Fisheries and Food鈥檚 (MAFF) biologists play an important role
sorting things out. MAFF is a regular recruiter of biologists. Its Directorate
of Fisheries Research investigates the cultivation and exploitation of fish and
shellfish stocks and the protection of the aquatic environment. This involves
the use of modelling, statistics and population dynamics and investigations in
both marine ecology and fish biology. MAFF`s major Central Science Laboratory is
based in York. Other organisations employing biological scientists include the
Forestry Commission, Edinburgh, the Pesticides Directorate, York, and the
Veterinary Laboratory Agency, Addlestone, Surrey.
Many graduates find the idea of a career in forensic science appealing. Each
police constabulary has the use of a forensic science laboratory, often shared
with another force, which is run by the Home Office. Many of their laboratory
staff are taken on at A-level, but there is also a steady demand for graduate
scientists. Some scientists study the masters鈥� degrees in forensic science at
King鈥檚 College London and at the University of Strathclyde but, according to the
Home Office, graduates from these courses are not necessarily preferred against
those with good honours degrees in subjects such as chemistry and
biochemistry.
If your aim is to become a senior Civil Service administrator apply for the
鈥淪cience and Engineering Fast Stream鈥�. The Ministry of Defence, the Department
of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food plus
the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions are all recruiting
scientists and engineers to be groomed for senior posts in government. Careers
of fast streamers often start in a government laboratory and progress through
project management into the policy making and strategic roles in Whitehall.