This year, students participated in a virtual field trip to Capstone Colliery in West Yorkshire to investigate water remediation work, which cleaned up contamination from mine drainage and allowed the development of a nearby residential area. For the field class, students were tasked with producing a technical consultancy report for their client, the owners of a similar site, with the aim to permit commercial development.
Student groups carried out a habitat survey and selected their preferred sampling locations for the site. After receiving field data for these locations, they used their analytical skills to investigate the levels of contamination on-site, both in virtual lab groups and in-person once our labs reopened. They produced a comprehensive technical report on their findings and suggested remediation strategies relevant to their stakeholders, including water companies and environmental regulators, as well as their commercial client.
Alongside developing skills in environmental consultancy, this module focuses on employability and personal development. Students have taken part in a series of six interactive workshops covering self-knowledge and understanding, strengths and skills, and how to effectively communicate this. The workshops have also focused on career planning and confidence, decision-making, resilience and motivation, and application writing. Students have been able to access one to one employability support from our faculty-based careers advisor, and have had presentations from several of our alumni who have gone on to diverse careers in GIS, HR and environmental consultancy.
“In this module we take the theory, field and lab skills the students have picked up earlier in their degrees, and put this into practice in a way which is really relevant to the workplace,” module leader Dr Andrew McGonigle said. “We help the students see the marketability and value of their skill set in terms of getting hired in a variety of professional settings. Furthermore, the module is focused on the students performing an environmental assessment exercise, which mimics what happens in the context of a professional environmental consultancy.”
Final year Environmental Science student Phoebe said, “I was intrigued by the careers aspect of the module as I wanted to learn more about real-world applications of our knowledge and specific fields of work that we could enter with the skills gained from our entire degree.
“I have learnt how to write a professional environmental report, adding to the list of skills I have gained throughout my degree, whilst engaging with our careers service who have the knowledge and resources to help and advise our future job prospects. Specifically, I have learnt how to professionally adapt my CV to every job application and have written a successful cover letter for the first time! Our careers advisor, Louise Hall, has also taught us that graduate schemes are not our only option, there are plenty of opportunities within our grasp. I particularly enjoyed the alumni session, as they provided a true insight into their careers post-graduation and definitely eased my mind about gaining a job, into a desired sector, straight from graduation."