An internship in public administration performed at the Arizona State Employment Service Tucson, Arizona : January 25, 1971 - April 2, 1971

Abstract

My internship experience at the Arizona State Employment Service can basically be divided into two parts. The first part, at the Tucson Metro Office, provided me the opportunity of observing and participating in the basic functions of the traditional Employment Service: employment interviewing and job placement. While at the Tucson Metro Office, I was also able to participate in the organizational and administrative planning and initial execution of the Summer Jobs for Youth Program. This program gave me insight into the basic administrative or management problem of attempting to maximize effectiveness while working within the constraints of severely limited resources. The second part of my internship consisted of three and one- half weeks at the Employment Opportunity Center. This experience gave me an exposure into what has become the new direction and emphasis of the Employment Service: providing employability development services for the disadvantaged. The team approach was developed as a means of providing the support and the variety of services that the disadvantaged needs to overcome his problems. While at the E.O.C. I also had the opportunity to attend management level conferences with other manpower agencies. These conferences were basically an attempt to eliminate the duplication of services by similar governmental agencies. This impressed upon me the absolute necessity of agency coordination, but I soon found out that this was difficult to achieve because of the many different manpower programs designed for specialized interest groups. Competition among the interest groups thus developed and impeded coordination.