Domestic Personnel

Job overview
Domestic personnel attend to the needs and welfare of the inmates of school, and university residences, or any other youth residences, children's homes, homes for the aged and other hostels.

What do people do in this job?
Matrons: - bear full responsibility for all domestic affairs. ?They are responsible for meals, cleanliness, stocktaking, laundry etc.

Their work is mainly supervisory and they are in charge of all assistants, cooks and servants.

Domestic staff: - are responsible mainly for serving meals and taking care of household linen.

They collect soiled linen, do mending and keep a record of sheets, pillowcases, curtains and towels.

Domestic assistants help with the preparation of food and supervise the workers who do the washing up and preparation of vegetables?

Cooks: - keep a record of the purchases and consumption of stock in the kitchen.

They compile the menus, organise kitchen staff and submit regular reports on the activities in the kitchen to the matron.

What kinds of people are suitable for this career?
Domestic personnel work long hours and their duties are mainly routine.

Depending on the number of inmates, and the number of meals that have to be prepared each day, they often have to start work very early each morning.

Matrons must be able to organise personnel and duties and maintain discipline, but all domestic personnel should be capable of accepting responsibility and taking orders.

What qualifications are needed?
An interest in domestic affairs and cost awareness in the purchase and use of stock are valuable attributes in this line of work.

Matrons may sometimes have taken domestic science courses.