Watch the film and find out more about Gerry's job working as an
emergency planning officer in a local council.
I'm Gerry Cast and I'm an emergency planning officer for London
Borough of Lewisham. An emergency planning officer's role is a wide
and varied one. The wonderful thing is that the risks, the threats,
the hazards faced by an organisation are dynamic, they are always
evolving. At certain times of the year flooding is going to be a
much higher priory whereas in the winter months, things like
pandemic flu are a much higher risk. I really, really like the
challenge and I like the fact that it's an ever changing role and I
do like the fact that there are no two days that are the same.
In my career, well, I wouldn't say anything has held me back
other than perhaps choices that I have may made. The real focus of
my life and educational studies was law. Learning to overcome these
set methods that have been ingrained for a number of years and
learning to be much more open minded, that was a challenge, at
first, but didn't hold me back. I guess it fuelled me further.
Studying law has taught me a lot of things, but becoming an
emergency planning officer has helped me grow a lot more, I guess,
and it certainly pushed me forward and made me a lot more proactive
as well.
In five years time, 10 years time even, I can see myself staying
in this field and progressing as far as I possibly can, if that's
head of emergency planning for a local authority or even possibly
working for central government, the cabinet office.