The Careers Team and Wildlife Conservation programme team welcomed a number of speakers for our ‘Careers in the Environmental and Conservation Sector’ evening last week, who provided a great insight into the broad range of career opportunities in this sector as well as advice on how to make it in conservation and environmental careers. Click on the speakers’ names below to access their presentation slides.

Louise Sinnott, Responsibility Project Manager at Burberry, originally had ambitions towards a career in environmental consultancy after graduating from LJMU with a BSc (Hons) Environmental Science in 2010. After completing voluntary work as a biodiversity officer in the planning department of a local council, she studied for an MBA in Environmental Management and set her sights on a more commercial role instead. Further experience as an environmental business adviser and sustainability engagement manager helped her secure her current role at Burberry. The fashion industry is the second-most polluting industry in the world, but companies are increasingly aware of their responsibility to do something to change that. Louise described a number of initiatives Burberry has launched to reduce its environmental impact, both in their own operations and their supply chain.

Josh Styles is a man on a mission to save and re-introduce regionally-threatened plant species, and is so committed to this cause that he spends some of his own hard-earned cash from his day job as an ecological consultant on his North West Rare Plants Initiative. He talked about his partnership with Chester Zoo and his collaboration with a number of NGOs, Natural England and private landowners as well as the successes he has achieved after just one year since launching the project in 2017, such as establishing ex-situ populations of 42 out of his 49 target species.

Ben Gregory from Cheshire Wildlife Trust gave an interesting insight into the Trust’s work with farmers. With 70% of the UK’s land being farmed in some way, how this land is managed has a huge impact on wildlife. Ben spoke about how the trust is trying to influence agricultural policy and provides advice and guidance as well as best practice demonstrations to farmer, while also getting involved in Living Landscape and other partnership projects.

Dave Mercer, Senior Reserve Manager at Natural England, discussed the varied nature of his role, which involves habitat conservation, managing research partnerships, education activities and collaboration with both farmers and organisations like the RSPB and the Environment Agency. Natural England is the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England, so as a publicly-funded body, austerity measures have put pressure on the organisation to generate income through consultancy and other activities. The organisation has demonstrated creativity by hiring out some of its local locations as film sets e.g. for War of the Worlds. This highlighted very well that even if you don’t want to work in a ‘corporate’ role, commercial awareness and business thinking is also important when working for charities/not-for-profit organisations.

The speakers all gave some great tips for breaking into the sector:

• Experience is key!
  Gaining relevant experience alongside your studies will not only help you with your career decision-making but also provides great networking opportunities. Several of the speakers commented that previous volunteers in their organisation went on to secure paid positions because they could demonstrate relevant practical and transferable skills. Working as an assistant for great-crested newt or bat surveys in the summer months may give you the opportunity to gain relevant licences for working in consultancy. Organisations like Natural England, the RSPB, local wildlife trusts, and The Conservation Volunteers also offer traineeships.
• Read!
  Keeping up-to-date with research and relevant reports helps you stay informed of current and future priorities within the sector and for individual organisations.
• Understand what skills you need:
  Much of the work in this sector involves collaboration with lots of different partners, so networking skills, communication and influencing skills are really important. Passion for your work/cause is essential to change people’s attitudes and behaviours. Moving around different organisations and roles when volunteering or for short-term contracts can help you developed a varied skills set.
• Gain professional accreditations where possible:
  Accreditations or memberships of relevant professional bodies such as CIEEM demonstrate that you’re serious about a career in this sector and often give you access to networking opportunities and discounted training.