Is Public Safety a Good Career Path For People Who Want To Make A Difference?

04.06.2020 WELLNESS 0.0 0

career in public safety

Everyone wants a genuinely rewarding career but finding one can be difficult. When most people think of rewarding, altruistic work, they think of nurses, doctors, and other emergency workers. However, there are plenty of other careers that can provide the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of Canadian citizens. For anyone who wants to make a difference, a career in public health and safety could be the answer.

Why Public Safety Matters

The nature of our daily routines changes with the times. As technology advances and our transport, communications, and economic infrastructure all increase in sophistication, the ways that we live our lives also change accordingly. These changes are mostly positive, although there are always going to be some challenges and side effects. For example, online shopping has made it more convenient than ever to buy essential goods, something that has become even more important in 2020.

Another ongoing challenge is that there are always going to be those who seek to take advantage of these advances in order to exploit them and use them to take advantage of other people. In order to counter these threats, a robust public safety system is needed.

Examples of the kind of issues taken up by public health officials include:

Responding to floods and other natural disasters throughout Canada
Reducing gun and gang violence through intelligence sharing, educations, and other policies
Preventing and responding to cyberattacks on Canadian businesses and institutions
Combatting organised crime, including the illegal drug trade, throughout Canada

There is a wide range of career paths within public health administration that enable people who wish to make a difference to Canadian society to do so. Wilfrid Laurier has an excellent article that outlines the importance of public health administration. Below we have highlighted some of the most popular career paths for anyone wishing to engage proactively with a career in public health administration.

Civil Engineer

Civil engineers are responsible for designing and overseeing major infrastructure projects. Without civil engineers, our cities wouldn’t have plumbing, our roads wouldn’t be maintained, and there would be no rhyme or reason to the layout of our urban spaces. Civil engineers are responsible for engineering the physical spaces that our society is dependent upon.

Civil engineers can work behind the scenes and be mostly involved in the planning of projects, or they can work hands-on in the field overseeing infrastructure projects. As our technological and architectural capabilities increase, so do the tools available to civil engineers. This means that civil engineers are constantly looking back over existing spaces and working with local administrations to find ways of improving and updating them.

National Security

When most people think of national security jobs, they immediately think of jobs in the armed forces or intelligence services. Both of these certainly fall under the national security umbrella, but there are a plethora of other roles on offer as well. Not all of these roles involve any kind of fieldwork, there are plenty of roles for analysts and other supporting roles.

For example, jobs in national security include:

Careers in the RCMP
Canadian Security Intelligence Services
Canada Border Services Agency
Civilian roles in the national defence sector
Communications Security Establishment
Defence Research and Development Canada

All of these roles provide workers with the opportunity to make a real difference to the security and wellbeing of Canadian citizens. The range of careers on offer with the agencies above is very broad. Most people who have already earned a college degree will find career paths available that provide them with the opportunity to utilise their existing knowledge and qualifications.

Cyber Security

As with all major economies, Canada’s businesses are regularly on the receiving end of cyberattacks. These cyberattacks are sometimes launched by criminal organisations, but they are also increasingly being conducted at the behest of nation-states. Fighting back against these cybersecurity threats is essential for protecting Canada’s national and economic security.

There is a range of institutions that are involved in maintaining Canada’s cybersecurity. These include roles in both the public and the private sector. Canada’s law enforcement and national security agencies all require cybersecurity specialists to help them maintain their security.

For anyone who is looking for a rewarding career that enables them to help other people in a meaningful way, public safety is an excellent choice. There is a much greater range of roles available than many people realise and there are opportunities to harness a variety of different skills. What we have outlined above are just some of the opportunities on offer.