Jobs in the community
Where can I find information about different jobs?
(Years 5-8)
Image: Library staff member with lots of books to return by Aotearoa People's Network Kaharoa on DigitalNZ.
Entry last updated: 5/12/24
Introduction
There are many jobs done by people in our communities that help us stay healthy and keep our neighbourhoods running well. These jobs include careers in health, animal care, construction, emergency services, and lots more.
Community jobs
Some jobs in our communities are:
Teacher | Kaiako: plan lessons, run classes, and help students learn.
Construction workers: plumbers, builders, electricians, and road workers are construction workers.
Healthcare workers: such as doctors, nurses, caregivers, physiotherapists, and dentists.
Emergency services: such as paramedics (āpiha whakaora), firefighters (kaitinei ahi) and police officers (pirihimana).
Veterinarian and vet nurse: keep animals healthy and look after them when they are sick.
General Websites
Here are some great places to look for information, pictures, and facts about different jobs in the community.
DigitalNZ searches online resources from New Zealand libraries, museums, universities and government sites in one place. It groups results by the type of information and has lots of photos, quick facts, and stories on topics like this one.
Enter the keywords 'jobs' and 'community' into the search box.
You will get a list of results.
Look down the page until you see a User Story called Jobs in the Community.
Select the title or the picture to open the story.
Pick one of the stories for example Jobs in the community (Part 1) to find out more about these jobs.
Tips: Search words, or keywords, are the most important words in our question. You can leave out small words like ‘the’ and ‘of’ and just choose the main ones, eg Jobs. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.
Fact Monster is an online encyclopedia and homework site. It has lots of facts and is a good starting point for all sorts of questions. If you look down to the bottom of the page, you will see it’s run by Pearson Education, a publisher of educational books.
Enter the keyword 'careers' into the search box at the top of the page.
This will bring up a results page with lots of entries about different types of work or jobs.
Select Career Guide to see a long list of jobs.
Pick a job you want to know more about, like Firefighter, to see what you would do in that job.
Tips: Some websites have advertisements (or ads) which ask us to buy something or tell us to ‘click here’. It’s best to ignore these ads and focus on the information we’re looking for.
Britannica is one of the EPIC resources. EPIC is a collection of reliable databases covering lots of different topics. It’s put together especially for New Zealand school students and helps to answer questions like this.
To search Britannica School:
enter in a keyword for the job or career you are looking for eg veterinarian or dentist
this will bring up a list of search results that include your keyword, and
select the article that best matches your search eg veterinary medicine (medical science) or dentist.
This will have information about the work they do.
If you aren't sure what job you want to look for, you can browse a list of different jobs or careers instead. To do this:
enter the keywords 'careers at a glance' into the search box
select the article called Careers at a Glance from the list of search results
look for the headings Careers A-I and for Careers J-Z
select the drop-down arrow beside each box to view a list of jobs starting with those letters, and
choose a job you're interested in.
Tips: To get to the EPIC resources you will need a password from your school librarian first. Or you can chat with one of our AnyQuestions librarians between 1 and 6pm Monday to Friday and they will help you online. Some EPIC databases may also be available through your public library.
Books
Your school or local public library will have books about jobs. Here are some that we found:
If you love cooking, you could be ... by Elizabeth Dennis.
How to be a vet and other animal jobs by Jess French.
Important jobs at hospitals by Mari Bolte.
Mechanic by James Nixon and Bobby Humphrey.
Postman by Hannah Phillips.
What do construction workers do all day? by Emily Mahoney.
Firefighter by Louise Spilsbury.
Helping hospital : a community helpers book by Lindsay Ward.
SCIS no: 5518863
