Recruitment and Training of Public Officials
| Author | A. L. N. D. Houghton |
| Published date | 01 July 1931 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1931.tb02894.x |
| Date | 01 July 1931 |
Recruitment and Training
of
Public
Officials
By
A.
L.
N.
D.
HOUCHTON
General Secretary,
Association
of
Oficers
of
Taxes
[Beirtg
a
Paper to be discussed at the Summer Conference of the
Institute
of
Public Administration,
July,
19311
ENTER
this
well-trodden field of discussion with considerable
I
hesitation. Almost every conceivable aspect
of
the recruitment
and training
of
public officials has been given expert, critical, and
constructive examination, not only within the Institute itself, but
more recently and more iritensively in evidence both to the Royal
Commission on the Civil Service, and to the Departmental Committee
appointed by the Minister of Health.
I
am stimulated by thc belief,
however,
that
the
very
antiquity of this problem is proof that the
last word has not yet been said.
From my point of view, the most forbidding feature of
this
sub-
ject is that any consideration which we may give to the age, educa-
tion, and time of recruitment
of
public officials must necessarily con-
tain
a
greater measure of academic interest than possibility of prac-
tical result. This is more especially the case concerning the Civil
Service. The State as employer and examiner must come to prudent
terms not only
with
the State as educator, but with the public con-
science. The recruitment
of
officials for Local Government Service
also involves certain obligations to the local community which must
be combined in due proportion with the primary object
of
securing
suitable candidates for appointment. In most cases, whatever system
of
recruitment is adopted, it must not only be designed to promote
and maintain the efficiency of the public services, but it must with-
stand the critical gaze of politicians, newspaper proprietors, educa-
tional authorities, staff associations, and other people who help to
make the world
a
fit place to live in. Private employers need not
concern themselves with the principles
of
recruitment laid down
for
the public services. The worst evils
of
patronage and jobbery
248
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